"scoobyandy" wrote in message
...

I have just moved in to a new property and am sorting out the garden, i
have a major problem with slugs, I dont want to use any slug pellets
etc as have pets, and just want a natural way to get rid of them all as
eaten a lot of my plants.

Any help would be most appritiated.

There are two types of slug killers: toxic and non-toxic. Paghat has a
great page on the subject at her site. I would recommend that you get the
type that has iron phosphate as the active ingredient. It is non-toxic and
works better than the kind with metaldehyde. That seems like a win-win
situation to me and has nothing to do with being a "tree hugger." I'm too
cheap to buy chemicals that don't work but have a high toxicity. Once you
start killing off a wide range of animals in your environment, you just
create more problems and have to spend more time and money on fixing them.

In addition to the iron phosphate slug killers, you can use a combination of
other methods. Go out at night with a flashlight and pick them off. Put
our small containers of beer to attract them. They will crawl into the
container and drown. You can put out a board on top of some bricks to give
them shelter. Go out during the day, remove the board and collect the
slugs. Keep mulch away from plants that slugs like. Some people use broken
egg shells or sharp sand around plants to discourage the slugs. Put in a
water feature and attract toads and frogs that eat slugs. Attract birds
that eat slugs.