The eggs look like clusters of fish eggs except they are a creamy color and rather small - see the attached link. They can be found just on the top of the soil, but most often they are somewhat protected and tucked under something.......birds and other creatures find them quite appealing treats :-) Leaves, debris, mulch, the bottom of pots and containers, etc., all make good hiding places. Typically you will find them somewhere moist and dark. Here is a link that might be useful:

Hey Jennifer: I did use Sluggo once but you have to re apply it often. Seemed like a pain for the cost. We have three cats that are into positively anything so I have to use any chemicals if I can help it. So last year I went out and bought a whole bunch of plastic ashtrays from the dollar store. This is for my hosta beds. Once a week I fill up the ashtrays that are hidden behind the hostas with whatever the single cheapest beer is at the grocery. At that time I might rinse out the slug carcasses or I might not. It is just as effective to pour beer in with or without dead slugs (or what's left of them) in the ashtray. I do rinse them out as needed with the hose and then put them back in place. It works great. Furthermore I like the looks on my neighbors faces when I walk around the front yard at 6 a.m. Saturday morning carrying a six pack:) Kate

Yes, each adult slug will lay eggs about twice a month when it is warm. Lots of eggs get laid in fall, overwinter, hatch in spring, then spend the next summer maturing to adulthood. The small, immature slugs tend to do the most damage to your tender hosta leaves, hence the tiny holes that appear early in the summer are often from tiny slugs. Larger holes earlier than that are usually from cutworms. Petiole damage is more often from older slugs but can also be from pill bugs (sow bugs), earwigs, and cutworms.

I'd advise against using salt in the garden, with the exception of killing weeds between paving or other contained areas you don't ever want to grow plants. Salt is highly toxic to plants and will dissolve in to the soil where it doesn't break down. About two years back I had a garden party and a small container of salt got knocked over on to the lawn and spilt perhaps a table spoon full. Till this day there is still a permanently dead patch in the lawn that will not grow. I'm going to have to cut it out, discard the soil and re-turf that patch this year. The salt just hasn't washed out like I thought it would. Even if you haven't had any adverse affects yet, it's building up in the soil and will make it toxic. Anyway, about those slugs and snails... I just noticed yesterday while weeding that there was a whole colony of the things living under some stones. I didn't realise they'd be out yet. So, I promptly reached for the nearest can of slug pellets. I'm not a huge fan of chemicals, but really the newer slug pellets are better than ever. They don't poison wildlife, nor the soil (iron phosphate is a trace mineral plants actually need), and they seem to work well. If you apply them at the first sign of slugs and continue thoughout the year then very few will have the chance to lay eggs, thus it will significantly reduce the population this year, and next year there should be very few of the things. The main down side to using pellets is they don't kill the slugs instantly, thus they can still continue to munch through your plants for some hours after exposure. They're a great way to lower the slug population, but a circle of them around a plant won't stop it being dammaged. Conversely, many brands contain something that *attacts* the slugs, so you may even draw slugs towards your plants by doing this. For those slugs-salad plants you're going to have to repell them with something. Copper tape or an inch wide circle of sharp edged gravel should work well. In my experieince slugs hate gravel of any kind, but the sharp edged stuff (I buy big bags of it cheap for the drainage layer in house plant pots) seems to repell them the most. I've mulched whole raised beds with the stuff and not found a single slug or any damage, not even when my garden was infested with slugs. It also looks quite nice and helps the soil stay damp. Going around just after its rained and collecting them in to a bucket can also give fast results and lower the population of them. I've filled a 6 liter buket with the things before now. The one thing people rarely discuss when suggesting this method however is diposal of the resulting 4 lb or more of slugs... I've actually found it quite difficult and don't have any really good suggestions. Everything resulted in either my being grossed out and/or some kind of nasty mess I didn't want.