In article , Dave Moore davidfhmo
writes
This is my first posting to this group, and I do so on behalf of my wife a
new and inexperienced enthusiast of gardening.

Karen has noticed a profusion of tiny slugs appearing to come from beneath a
small area of timber decking and recalled having to deal with a large number
of gi-normous ones during the end of last summer.

Can anyone give some advice as to how to deal with the problem?

What precisely is the problem? ;-)

That they're attacking your favourite plants?
Or that you don't like inadvertently stepping on them barefoot?

Tiny slugs are not necessarily baby big slugs. There's about 20
different species of slug, and they do a valuable job of hoovering up
decaying vegetation. The species that do most damage to plants are ones
that don't grow huge - the huge black ones are less of a problem for
plants. And some species are carnivorous and eat other slugs.

discouragement is always a good idea - basically, don't give them places
to shelter. Don't leave heaps of stones around, and don't cover areas
with large pieces of wood ;-)

Otherwise the options a

Poisoning (slug pellets, slug-killing liquids) with the possibility of
poisoning other things - there's argument about this. Or pour salt or
very strong coffee on them (the latter isn't yet of proven
effectiveness)

Slug traps - saucers of beer that they fall into and drown in.

Catch them (go out with a torch at night) and kill them by drowning in
salt water, cutting in half, or bagging up and putting them in the
freezer.

Protect your plants with physical barriers - crushed egg shells, dried
and broken up bracken, cinders, copper wire

Ignore them and avoid plants which are slug delicacies.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm