No you aren't alone! Slugs and snails take over the yards here especially in spring( here being Portland, OR). I stopped bothering with the "natural" solutions bc it was like trying to take out an army with a slingshot. I use sluggo (iron sulfate) it's the only thing that works that I can stay on top of. Luckily we had a super dry spring and summer so for the first time in years the slugs didnt eat all of my pole bean seedlings :) but even with that, my hostas have a few small holes as I haven't been on top of it. I only have a light green thumb though!

Up, up and not away!

Hi Cora! Yes, a 10% ammonia solution in a spray bottle is by far the easiest to kill slugs on sight without damaging your plants or soil. (You should not use a salt shaker.) Just take any old spray bottle and put in 9 parts water, 1 part household ammonia (non-sudsing kind, if you have it). You may read about stronger solutions (more ammonia), but it is not necessary. Since you will be spraying the slugs as you see them, you will also see that a 10% solution works. Have fun! Carol

I finally did it! My neighbors must really think I am crazy now - I took a flashlight and a cup of ammonia/water mixture to drop them into and went slug hunting!! I could not find a spray bottle to use and wasn't sure of the proportion and I simply had to do SOMETHING... We had a tiny bit of rain this evening and the tops of all the leaves were wet - so I found most of them on the tops of the leaves, rather than underneath. The only thing is, you all talk about how BIG the slugs are, and most of the ones I found were REALLY tiny, like the dot of a felt tip pen or, when stretched out, as thin as a pencil line. Not easy to see, especially at night, with a flashlight! I only saw maybe 5 or six that were an inch or so long. Those tiny mouths still manage to make unsightly little holes all over my hosta, though. I probably only killed about 30-40, but fewer slugs to lay eggs and eat teeny-tiny holes in my Hosta is still great! Tomorrow I am going to look for/or buy a spray bottle so I can cover more territory without straining my eyes to actually see the little slimers. I do have a question, though... do you just spray the hosta (top and bottom of leaves & stems) or do you spray the ground all around too? I don't use actual mulch, only what ground up leaves are left from last fall, but there is still some small leaf pieces that slugs could hide under. Since I am (obviously) a night person, I don't mind doing this for as long as it takes, I just want to be sure I am using the ammonia in the most effective way. It is great to have a weapon that actually works against the slugs and won't hurt the hosta! BettyLu