I did a quick bit of slug research and found these little tidbits that I had not seen before. - Grapefruit, slugs love it and will choose it over your plants. (Sounds like an opportunity for a "bait and salt" to me.) -Oat bran, slugs love it but once eaten it expands till they die - Slugs hate mint, geraniums, fennel and garlic -soot sprinkled around the base of plants will kill slugs by drying them out - a squirt of ammonia diluted with water will kill them Then of course there are the slug eaters such as Starlings, toads, ducks, chickens etc. Those moist mild winters do increase the populations. Freezes have to be tough to get them. Oh and by the way, fish love to eat them. Of course your not likely to have fish hanging around your flower beds but you can toss them in the pond if you have one. Well, I'm off to spread some oat bran and feed the fish.

One of the low-growing Sedums/stonecrops might be good for this purpose. It is fairly slug-resistant. Many types will be fine in your clay soil fill, and many will do well in afternoon sun. Gold Moss sedum (Sedum acre "Aureum") might work well for you as it is very low-growing and will tolerate moderate foot traffic and full sun. Likes a dry soil, and likely will be evergreen for you in Zone 7. We have Wild stonecrop (Sedum ternatum), which is a U.S. native in our rocky areas, but this stonecrop does better with some shade. Some sedums can get slippery if stepped on directly if they are tall/long, so if you go with a sedum, be sure that it's a very compact, low-growing one that will not send out long shoots over the pavers. See the link below for a fabulous sedum/stonecrop general website that has photos of many, many varieties of sedum. It's the one plant I can think of right now that is slug-resistant, tolerates afternoon sun and clay soil, is low-growing, foot-traffic tolerant, and disease and pest resistant. You wouldn't have to water it excessively so that's always a plus too. Here is a link that might be useful: Sedum Photo gallery

That is so strange, Linda! Especially no earthworms!! We do have our lawn treated, with all dry applications and we have earthworms in the middle of it! I am presently digging up more sod, for more planting areas and run into worms all the time, in fact will remove them rather than hack them to pieces if I see one in time! As far as those peeper frogs/rain frogs, buyorsell888, I've purposely created a small pond last year, and now this year another smaller to entice them to come to my yard--I LOVE the sound of frogs and crickets!! Of course, if I had a million of them right under my window at night, I might change my mind but if they were at a distance, say a 1/2 acre away--even better--just like my parents home in the N.C. mountains!!! I loved to lay awake and listen to them, not long, though, they would chirp/sing me to sleep rather quickly!! Linda, have you EVER had earth worms before?

It is probably a combination of cold damage followed by insects and the decay process.