Oh my goodness! California has not yet set their best do gooders on the kill Sluggo and Escargo mission. The Swiss are ahead of them. I have used Escargo for years. My worm count at it's best three years ago was twelve to twenty in the turn of a single garden spade from an organic content of seventeen percent. That also was at the height of the largest one time observation of egg laying I have yet to witness. Escargo has been in use here on the same ground for as long as it has been available without any noticeable harm to anything but the slugs. The robins and moles eat more worms than Sluggo or Escargo harm. On that great garden soil I have grown nine hundred pound Atlantic Giant pumpkins, ninety eight inch Long Gourds and up to five pound tomatoes. The Long Gourd was the largest such gourd grown in Pennsylvania a few years ago. The genetics in that seed produced more over a hundred inch gourds in the history of the sport. All of these items grew with the protection of Escargo in close and continuous use to protect them from an army of slugs.

Shane, I collect ~ 8 five-gallon buckets of UCG/tea and filters weekly from my local Shoney's restaurant here in South Boston, Virginia, hardly a dot on anyone's map. They could not be nicer to me and bend over backwards to help me, to the point of loading the heavy buckets into my car trunk. I'm 67. They don't know my age, but know I could use the help. Before that, I was collecting from Sheetz, a "family" owned business selling gas, sandwiches, donuts, and such. A new manager (young, clueless, and enamored by "power") came in, looked at the (cleaned) buckets awaiting coffee grounds and mandated "That's unprofessional. Stop doing that." Score: Shoney's Restaurnant ........... 100% cooperative Sheetz .................................. 100% ignorant

I haven't grown Dahlia yet, but got some seed going :D This is what I do for earwigs though. 1. Most important IMHO is completely raking away all winter mulch by March. Eliminating this nice day time moist hiding place for these guys works wonders! Ones that do crawl out and into beds on cloudy rainy days are more susceptible to being snatched up by birds. 2. Lay out cut pieces old garden hose here and there and each morning dump contents out into soapy bucket of water. 3. Crumple up moist newspaper in evening and place in paper bags around garden...grab it up in morning and discard in garbage sack; sealed tightly. I did this for the first time around the base of Datura plants after I caught them red-handed eating up blooms before they could open. 4. Use lettuce as trap crops....I learned this by accident! I've pulled heads with literally 20+ hiding within. Even more if you can get good aphid attack on the lettuce; earwigs love to dine on them too as they are opportunistic feeders! 5. If you gonna use a beer trap for earwigs and or slugs; make a slurry containing extra yeast and sugar. You can add pieces of rotting fruits (more for the earwigs). Sink completely open ended cans (like soup cans)with the mixture in the soil so that rim is flush; making sure the slurry is no more than half-way filling the can. Last summer I used the weed eater one day and got busy with something else. Well I laid up against the side of the house and when I finally got back to it about 8 days later and next of earwigs had moved into the string compartment! They will seek out ANY place out of the hot dry sun! For slugs...a few more things. I lay pieces of flat board around bed perimeters. Every day pick it up and flip over; pick off the slugs. Make sure to check the ground where they laid in case they are on the soil rather than attached to the board. Though I know it may be ugly for a minute, crush up dried eggshells into itsy bity sharp pieces and encircle plants and or sprinkle over the entire area. Anyway, hope some of these tricks you find helpful :D Vera

Coll, you say" So I either spray and melt them on the spot or cut them in half with a tool if I have one handy. I read that if they have even one eye left, they will live. You can squash them with your foot, but cutting them in half is just making two of them, or so I assume. This is really a gross subject, reminds me of a slobbering bulldog with strings of slime getting on my hands, and I really don't like that....although bulldogs are fine, nothing against them, just their drool!!! You all have some exotic slimeballs to deal with, mine are all one kind, that wet gray color. My turtle disappeared, have not seen any frogs or toads this year, so it is up to me and the ammonia and Sluggo Plus and any other chemical in my arsenal. I had to stop with the pellets while it was raining so much, but now I must resume the back breaking job of spreading Sluggo on the ground, and ammonia in the pots. It's amazing to me that tender plant roots do not die from the ammonia, because it destroys my skin if I come in contact with it--or bleach for that matter. After I treated some plantaginea with a bleach solution for foliar nematodes, I had dermatitis for two weeks....it got on my hands and kneecaps, don't know how that happened.