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!

Shade tolerant, I don't think slugs and snails are slow, nor do I believe they stay in one place. Of course they don't run, but they can crawl a considerable distance in a night, or a week, a month, let alone a year. As to staying in one place, it's supply and demand: when a patch gets crowded, some snails will move away to find food. Anyway, I know where the snail invasion started, when it started, and my conclusion is it didn't take them all that long to ransack the whole lot (about a year). Ken: As to the scientific knowledge: I don't think there has been much research in this specific area up till now. So they don't know, I presume.

I tried the Natria slug bait (which uses iron phosphate like Sluggo but is cheaper). It seems to have worked or at least controlled the population. I don't see as many slugs and snails around as much in the evenings and mornings anymore. It's still a on-going control method but for now, the constant frustration of seeing some new damage every morning is over. Of course, that is also combined with the plants growing bigger and fuller, so I may not notice bits and pieces of damage here and there. However, I'm basing my conclusions on actually not seeing as many bait pieces (assuming they were eaten) and not seeing as many of slugs and snails, as opposed to seeing plant damage. This morning, I did saw some ants carrying the bait away, so at least I know they seem to play a part in the disappearing bait also.

I would like to know how to keep my delphiniums safe as I have just planted them and although I don't get a lot of slugs and snails because of my frogs, they still managed to get my 2 plants last year. I have just bought and planted two more, and would like to know if there is anything I can do to save these plants without killing the hungry hoards. Can anyone give me a clue please? Yewtree- I find there is so much wildlife in my garden and I am finally getting brave enough to pick up worms and spiders. In the pond there is so much that just suddenly appears and I often wonder where it all comes from. We have 3 squirrels up in our sycamore tree and so many varieties of birds that love to bathe or drink from the pond. We sometimes see hedgehogs as well and one night I went into the garden and there was such a noise coming from inside one of the binliners put out next to the bin. On looking in there was a hedgehog having a real good feed.I couldn't believe what a noisy eater he was. We left him to it. They are lovely creatures. You can see some of my insects and birds and pond creatures etc on my website. It is www.the-horsfalls.co.uk Alison