Where Everybody Knows Your Name

I just did not realize how many slugs there are in this world. And they all seem to have heeded some silent call to descend upon our garden and eviscerate every valuable salad green that we have. We have SO MANY slugs! Until I get my duck flock, I must rely upon nightly checks with a flashlight and a jar of hot soapy water. I have found that hand picking slugs is about as good of an organic control as I can manage. Each time that I go looking, I find close to twenty or more of them among our salad greens. As an experiment, I also tried the classic slug beer trap last night. Filling a container with beer, burying it in the ground, hoping the slugs take the bait, and checking on it in the morning is what works for some folks. I found that the labor of handpicking still works better for me: good results for the effort. And no risk of finding my nocturnal cat passed out on our doorstep in the morning...

On the left: How things should be. On the right: Slug Damage

Setting the Trap

Placement

The result: Three slugs, one spider, one beetle (Do they all have smiles on?)