i've got the dreaded little monsters in my garden they don't seem very discremating i see their tracks every where, i've put down some comercial stuff, but it did rain alot after ,of course...any ideas home remedies??

You're right gardeniagirl21, they are non-discriminating. They will go after anything they can chew up, including tree seedlings. I have even seen small tree stems that are still green chewed off by them. Their absolute most favorate foods are lettus, strawberries, cabbage, brocoli, colliflower, spinich, beans, peas, tomatoes (as long as they don't have to clime the stems), and anything else like what I listed. I have heard many home remidies for the little slime balls. Remidies such as salt circles around the plants, egg shells sprinkled around them, gravels with rough edges spread across the surface of the soil, broken bits of glass, basically anything with sharp edges or salt contents. As long as it doesn't rain, the slug/snail baits will work as long as you spread it thick enough. I have also heard of taking citrus and cutting them in half, hollow them out leaving the skin half whole, and placeing the skins cut side down in the garden. The next morning, see if there are any slugs/snails under them and dispose of them if there are. We've tried this method but it hasn't ever worked for us.

The commercial baits work great for me. And I don't have to spread it very thick. I have more problems with slugs than snails but the baits work equally well on both.

I would be careful about putting salt in my garden. Salt tends to kill plants. Gravel has no effect on snails and slugs in my area. The beer in the sunken bowl or lid trick works but it's too much of a pain for me. Commercial baits are my weapon of choice. In the spring and fall, I spread it every couple of days and I tend to win the battle with them. Be especially vigilant when your seedlings are coming up.

Oh yes, and let the top of your soil dry out by nightfall. Slugs and snails don't like to crawl over dry ground.

If they can slither to it they'll eat it! I use diatomaceous earth around my plants to keep them away. It works well but needs to be reapplied often. I've heard of using copper wire or strips as a barrier but have never tried it. Does anyone know if it works? At least that would be a permanant solution. The DE gets kind of expensive. You can use shallow bowls of beer to drown them but then you are stuck with disposing a bunch of dead bloated slugs, yuck!
Karyn

Sorry we have never tried the copper ribbon. I too would like to know how it works.

BTW, we have heard that epson salt is surposed to be good for plants. I'm sure that would keep them away from you plants. And it never seemed to hurt the plants we put it around.