slug-magnet ligularia??? haha that's a good one! we had some of them in a bunch in the corner of one of our shade areas. they were shredded on a daily basis. I believe they actually caused more harm to the area than good due to the amount of slugs they attracted to everything else in the garden! we finally dug them up and got rid of them.

Excuse me for asking . . . what does your slug look like.
-Kadie

Thank you, Benny.

I don't quite understand why so many of you are opposed to using slug/snail bait, particularly when several brands are perfectly safe to use around children and pets. Is it a "tree-hugging" element? I grow approximately 1000 tropical plants, and the ONLY way I can control slugs and snails is with bait. Using these other methods mentioned is fine for someone growing only a handful of plants, but it would be pretty much impossible for me to get good results with those methods.

Ditto, Ken.

Arlene, sometimes it seems that I am living in an alternate-world, completely out of touch with what others think and do. I don't own a cell phone. (I rest my case )

A few years ago, I think it was in 2010, we had a very chilly and wet Spring and the Slugs were a real plague that year! I had moved all my Orchids outside in May as I always do, into my 30 foot cage. The Slugs just kept coming until the drier and warm Summer weather somewhere in June arrived, then they stopped essentially over night.
Now I bought Slug bait, they just kept marching right back into my "Screen house".
They were laughing at Beer traps, that didn't work at all.
I collected them every day and dumped them into Salt water, that dissolves them.
I placed slices of Potatoes and Apples around my Orchids and tossed them with the Slugs attached to the underside of those slices every morning into the salt water. That worked quite well. Sprinkling Salt from a Saltshaker was pretty handy too.
I repotted those plants which were in a pot with a rim, because Slugs liked to collect right under that rim. Any Orchid in older bark had to be repotted, since Slugs love to get into decayed Orchid medium. What worked well was using Coconut fiber instead of Bark, it seems the Slugs don't like to crawl through Coconut fiber.
Just a few notes here....surely they can be adapted to any plant!

Ken - we don't have cell phones either!

@Ken,

The answer is simple. There are other creatures that eat slugs and when it eats a slug killed with those nasty chemical baits, you in turn kill that animal. Is it worth it? This doesn't just apply to slugs. It applies to anything killed with a poison. Unless you go out there and scoop up everything you have killed with a poison, you run the risk of killing something else that will eat said poisoned something. Poisoned baits are NOT the only way to get rid of slugs.

Oh, and yes, I do hug trees. All gardeners should... don't you think?

I don't use poison. Period. No judgment.

Did I mention that Salt simply dissolves Slugs?
Btw Oppossums supposedly love to eat them.

Ducks will eat as many slugs as they can find. We used to keep a small flock just for that purpose and let them free range.

No ducks, not enough possums, and I would need to own a salt mine. I will risk the occasional (whatever "thing") that eats those dead slugs and snails. I am not sure eating them would harm it/them regardless. My 600+ orchids and 400+ other tropical plants are far more important to me. I use the heck out of my oaks and cedars. They provide shade and comfort for/to my plants during the spring and summer. I don't necessarily hug them though.

I had eggshells around my amaryllis, then it seems not to do much, so I tried snail/slug baits..still not too promising..so I tossed left over coffee grounds...now that seems to have a better effect.

Kadie, here's what my garden slugs look like. Rather ugly, slimy, creatures with a voracious appetite.

(oops) Somehow my slug portrait posted twice. Edited to get rid of the second one.

bennysplace said:DE works well:

http://www.planetnatural.com/p...

We went to a feed store and got a huge bag of diatomaceous earth to combat fleas in the house, it worked, dries them up and
cuts them up, it was safe around pets, the only danger was the dust when being applied, wear a mask....I would think it would work
on slugs, I luckily have not had a slug problem but as a prevention scattered busted egg shells around but the darn dog kept getting
in there and eating them! I have the d. earth on hand but have had rain EVERYDAY and am waiting for a dry day, we want to
dispense it around the yard as a flea prevention. Good luck to the original poster having this problem, frustrating what damage
a little creature can do!

I remember this idea posting where ammonia was used for slugs..have not tried it ..but some did and they say it works too.
http://garden.org/search/index...

I have just finished spraying my daylilies down in the bog and all my hostas with my 1gal sprayer with a mix of ammonia and water, 12 cups water and 1 cup ammonia (that was not a full gal. ) it was enough to do the remaining plants that had not been sprayed earlier.I had been using a 1qt. spray bottle but as the plants have gotten much larger I was having to fill it three times, now I decided to go to the larger sprayer. I buy the ammonia at the dollar store for $1.00 a bottle, and I like to get the lemon because it has a little color to it and I know immediately that is the ammonia spray. My plants are not 100 percent slug and snail damage free, but compared to last year this is very satisfying, a very small percentage of the leaves have any damage. I have not yet figured out just how often I have to spray, twice a week I think will work, and I hope to get down to once a week. Later in the year I might not have to spray at all?

Humm, I just don't know how that ammonia mix would do on all my tropical plants. I can't risk them to that unknown. I am with you on going to a larger sprayer. I now use a back-pack one that carries 3 gallons and it takes me three fill-ups to spray all my plants with fertilizer solutions. I have too many plants.....