I had the same problem with my Rozanne and Johnson's Blue this year. In my case, it was definitely deer; I caught them in the act in the early hours of the morning. [insert shaking fist]. It's interesting, because they had never touched them in previous years. I sheared off the munched-on areas, and they've come back nicely with a little help from Liquid Fence. The deer also did in my oriental lilies and many of my prized daylily cultivars (not touching any of the common varieties) when I missed a round of Liquid Fence while on vacation. They didn't touch my hosta this time, which is curious because it's usually their appetizer of choice. Go figure. Jessica

Well, this interested me because my dad always planted marigolds in rows at the ends of his garden to help ward off pests, and now I do the same thing. I guess this practice has been used in some cultures for hundreds of years. The marigolds do give off a chemical that repels certain nematodes that can destroy root systems of other plants (our vegetables, etc.) so for that reason it seems like a good idea to plant them in our gardens. French marigolds in particular are thought to be most effective in this way. I got this information reading from websites from Purdue and Clemson Universities. The slug situation is something apart from the pest-inhibiting effects from marigolds though, according to several writings I encountered (this post really sparked my curiosity mandolls!), which said that yes, marigolds do attract slugs. The good news is, that 1) if slugs go after the marigolds, they are leaving your other plantings alone (this didn't do it for me, I love my marigolds) and 2) there are ways to either repel or kill slugs using things you can easily use with no bad environmental effect. Coffee will kill slugs, as will salt poured on them, or you can put cups of beer (fresh, not stale) sunk in 1" below the ground in/around your garden. Slugs will be attracted to the beer and fall in and drown. Any leftover beer, well, that's up to you. If killing slugs bothers you, you can put used coffee grounds around the base of plants and that will help repel the slugs. Also, you can go out late at night with a flashlight and look for slugs, collect them in a bucket and move them elsewere. (To where? A slug relocation facility? Slug camp? Slug dude ranch? Slug spa?) :) Also, some of the ideas about dealing with slugs are from a website "Gardens Alive." I hope this is helpful. Good luck :)

Mary and Brandon, I have to agree with both of you. Mary, I can understand your love of gardening, and don't want to take the love out of it to make it science. I am a gardener too, but I used to be a scientist, but then I guess there's never a "used to be" - I always will be a scientist whether or not that's what I do for a living. When I was working at it I was a botanist and worked in several different labs, both at universities for scientists on faculty and at medical centers for doctors/medical school professors. I used to be the one doing those studies, and like Brandon, I firmly believe in them. The journals where my work was published are very careful and have other scientists review the papers before they are accepted for publication. I remember one time when I observed something and repeated the experiment over and over always with the same result- like you said, Mary, - seeing is believing. I spent mind-boggling hours and hours, days and days, on the microscope counting and measuring to get sufficient numbers to be able to run statistics on. We called in the professor who taught the university Biometry course (biometry = the science of using statistics in life sciences). She worked on the numbers for a couple of weeks then told us she couldn't back up our findings. There was some missing data we had no way of obtaining. We were so disappointed, and that study was never published. I suppose we could have bent the rules as Mary said she observed, but we were ethical and just kept of working trying to fill in the blanks so we could eventually report our findings. Yes, there are disreputable people who publish studies that are questionable. Some have actually "padded their data" and reported findings that were false. Some of those people have been caught too and have lost their jobs and reputations! I still believe what I observed is true, but nobody in the scientific community will ever hear about it because my boss and I had more integrity than the people Mary described. A few posts back I mentioned a guy in Memphis who did an experiment with coffee grounds in his garden. If I had said he did a study that included statistics, Mary, would you have believed what he observed? Scientists actually DO garden and get dirt under their nails and mud on their gloves.Alan Armitage and Michael Dirr (you are probably familiar with those names) established studies at the University of Georgia on garden plants. Those studies find varieties that are best suited for our Southeastern US hot, humid, climate. Please check the link below that describes that they started and how it effects our gardening. You have to believe those "studies". Your gardens probably include some of those plants Drs. Armitage and Dirr found to be ideal for us to grow. I know I check the The Gardens at UGA to learn about new plants that can be counted on to grow well for me because they're suited for out climate and the UGA studies prove it. Looking at the results of those studies saves me a lot of money and time too. Time I can be enjoying my garden instead of worrying about this and that plant that I never should have planted in the first place. I hope to still be digging in the dirt when I'm in my 80's and 90's. Maybe by then some scientist will have come up with a foolproof way to eradicate slugs from our gardens.

That’s interesting .. I already have some spinosad but didn’t realise, it is marketed here as a fruit fly control, see the blurb below. Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control has been included in this range because it’s based on spinosad, the naturally-derived insecticide found in Yates Success. Yates Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control works by tricking the insect into absorbing the spinosad that’s been combined with an irresistible bait. After she emerges from her pupal case in the soil, the female fly looks to feed on a source of protein before she lays her eggs. When she eats the protein and sugar bait in Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control, she also ingests a dose of the insecticide, which means she never makes it to the egg-laying stage. Fruit fly baits are nothing new but many have used a hormone that only attracts male flies (they’re the ones that don’t lay the eggs!) or have been based on a nasty chemical. Now Yates Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control has a low toxic formulation that really works. also found this because spinosad is highly effective against diamondback moth, but because it also controls several other important lepidopteran pests such as heliothis (Helicoverpa spp.), cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae), cabbage centre grub (Hellula hydralis) and cabbage cluster caterpillar (Crocidolomia pavonana) at rates which provide growers with excellent value for money. Spinosad is highly active against loopers (Chrysodeixis spp.) and affords some control of cluster caterpillar (Spodoptera litura) and onion thrips (Thrips tabaci). So so if my rose slugs ever start on my buds I’ll use this. Might even do it on the climbing nahema as I can only squish so high! And they do shred the leaves to pieces ...