MouseGarden

This year, I have a new tactic, which I will share.

I am not a fan of poisons, mostly because there is a fair bit of wildlife around, plus the occasional cat.  Last year I tried sneaking out at night and hand picking slugs, which was not very effective, and disgusting, though I see a skunk one night in the rain...As far as I can tell, he wasn't interested in slugs at all.

This year:  LETTUCE.

You wash a leaf of lettuce or two,  and you put it between the plants your slugs snack on.  Then you let them snack overnight, and you check it in the morning.  Most of the time they will be still on or around the lettuce, or underneath.  Some days I just leave it there, until it draws a crowd.

When there are enough gathered together I relocate them far away where there is a slug population living under a bush far away from my flowers.  No flashlights, no slime, no poison.  Pick up the leaf and go.  You can stick it inside an old flower pot for transport.

Even though it has rained a lot, I have much less damage to my plants, and I get to easily see how big a slug problem I am facing.  They come to me. *evil laughter*

Meanwhile, I put out seeds earlier this year, risking bad weather, and now the seeds are already plants just as the slugs are showing up.  Hard rain did crush some baby plants, but mostly it seems all right.  I collected seeds last year, mostly pansies and violas, and I have some wildflowers as well, and a few geraniums I grew in the winter.

On the craft front, I'm working on a bunch of new things for my online shop.  If I'd known there was going to be a pandemic lockdown, I would have definitely had more supplies!  I've been trying some new knitting stitches.

UPDATE:

Worked very well until I um...ran out of lettuce.  I tried baby lettuce but they ate it too quickly.  They wouldn't eat dandelions (of course not, that would be useful).  The heat wave reduced their numbers.  I also discovered black beetles are supposed to eat slugs, and some did appear towards August.  They hang out underneath pots during the day.

Sunflowers I planted very early were not as affected by slugs as the ones I grew later, which I had to move to pots because it was too hard to keep the slugs off.  They much prefer soft young leaves rather than mature ones.