If your composter is dripping a liquid the material in it is too wet to properly anerobic compost. There should never be any liquid runoff from a properly constructed compost pile, even one in one of those really expensive and unnecessary commercial things. Slugs and snails are part of Ma Natures recycling machine but they do not distinguish between living plants and dead plant materials and so are considered pests. About all they will do in your composter, besides digesting some of that material, is mate and lay eggs to spread around your garden because as wet as your compost is it is a very good envinment for them.

Have not had ONE slug since putting down fluffy long-needle pine "mulch' three years ago where the berms are planted with about 300 hosta. Son brought it from Cincinnati (he's in landscaping). I didn't like the looks of it because it's so fluffy and sort of 'curly' - it was about a foot deep - but it breaks down. The bastards must not like it - probably have a hard time navigating over it. I did not put it inside a fenced patio area where I have several hosta and found one slug hole last week so used the ammonia. (So I take that first part back - I did have ONE slug). Cut off the leaf and no more holes. The long-needle pine stuff isn't like regular 'mulch' because it's so fluffy and airy. Westy PS I've seen Maryann's garden and I can vouch for Deadline because I didn't see a slug hole - and she has a million hosta!

Oh, you're right, it is on the box. But who ever looks on the FRONT of the box for the ingredient list? 3.25% metaldehyde versus 5% sodium ferric. (If I'm remembering names and amounts correctly.) Doesn't sodium ferric sound like iron salts? Sounds like some sort of rust. Well, whatever it is, it is hopefully killing slugs. I don't usually like putting out poisons unless there's a need so just putting some out every month isn't probably going to happen. It also means I'd need to pay attention to a schedule and that doesn't work well for me. Probably what will happen is I will just wait until I see slug damage or slug trails again before reapplying any Corry's of any variety. I've also ordered some diatomacious earth which is supposed to deter slugs. The area being protected from slugs is a raised bed garden made of three layers of concrete blocks stacked and filled with soil. If a circle of diatomacious earth was applied around the base of the raised bed gardens and the Corry's killed off all the slugs in the gardens, would the diatomacious earth keep any new slugs from coming in? Do slugs lay eggs or somehow do something to propagate before they got killed off by the Corry's? If I put the circle of the diatomacious earth around the garden and new slugs hatch, they'd not be able to get out, although one hopes residual Corry's would do them in before they did much damage. Would a line of hydrated lime around the edge of the raised bed garden deter slugs? Hydrated lime on frogs will kill them and frogs and slugs seem somewhat similar?

i have squirrels as much as rabbits and i know they eat a lot of my garden. the perimeter fence doesn't seem like it would do a lot in my situation. fortunately i live in the city limits and do not have deer in my yard. i would also want a fence i can easily get over (or go through a gate) to water, weed, pick etc. the square foot gardening book has a suggestion. the short version is that, for example, if your garden is 4x4 feet, you make a 4x4 wooden frame that fits right on or around your box. you take something like chicken wire (from a 4 foot tall roll) and have it come vertical off the frame for 2 feet, bend it 90 degrees, run the 4 feet across the frame and then back down 2 feet. you use pieces of 2x4 foot fence to patch the sides and you have a animal resistant lid. it will let through light and water. of course that won't work for the vertical growing. this year i jumped from 2 square foot garden style boxes to 6. i intentionally planted things that got eaten up in 2 of the boxes, and will put the lid on them when the time comes. everything may get nibbled, but, for example, i did not get to eat one strawberry last year. most of my garden was fairly ok until i got a groundhog. that's a whole different story. the chicken wire is not pretty, but that's the cheapest solution for full enclosure. obviously you can balance your preference of appearance with cost. just remember to keep it light weight so you can easily remove it for weeding and picking. that may be a more intense cover than you need, but there are options. i personally tried some of the animal predator urine smell stuff and the other mixes and it didn't seem to do anything. maybe i got the wrong kind, or the garden was just too appealing. i will give some of them another go as a preventative measure though. they are cheap enough to try another brand.