First year of my gardening i had the same question until somebody told me to go to the garden in evening with flashlight. Since then i am fighting slugs all the time. What is helping me most in our wet climate: 1. Beer trap to get big slugs (but i had to put them under some cover to prevent rain from diluting beer). 2. Night patrol with flashlight. I use tweezers to pick them and drop in jar with salted water. 3. diatomaceous earth. I prefer now to start seeds in pots and use diatomaceous earth when transplaning. I dust it around my transplants, but need to be reapplied after rain. Crashed egg shells can be used as well. 4. copper colars around transplants, slugs don't like to touch copper. Last year i found on garage sale old copper pipes, flatted them to make collars. 5. copper wire on yorgurt cups: cut off bottom of cup, put it around transplant wider part down and wrap with some copper wire. 6. Sometims UCG help too.

Sorry to hear about your plants. Hope the greenhouse can be repaired without to much difficulty. I had a problem with slugs damaging my hostas. Someone told me to try putting coffee grounds around the plants. I did. I still see slug trails in the mornings but they haven't touched my hostas in three years. I get free coffee grounds from Starbucks. They package their used grounds for gardeners and generally have them in a bin near the door. Good luck. Bernie

Sheesh, this thread never ends. I hate chemicals. Now, that being said, I hate Hosta Gardens that look like swiss cheese this time of year. A few years ago we had to leave town for a week, right around this time of year, because of a sudden, unexpected death in the family. Upon return, the entire 2+ acre 2k+ Hosta and shade garden here was swiss cheese. I ran (O.K., drove) to the nearest beer store and did the deed, spreading, after somewhat burying the little party cups to attack them. Holy Moly, by the time I got to the third cup I could look back and see the slimey buggers climbing the first semi-buried first cup. Yes, indeed, it works. However, here's the 'but' . . . Having 'hidden' all those cups all over the gardens here, now the chore was to re-find them all, empty and re-fill them with fresh brew. Some two years later I was still finding them! So I spent many, many hours the next winter reading, reading, and reading some more. I then did some testing the next year. Conclusion: Metaldahyde (sp?) based products work the best. The early experiences about household pets problems are long-since fixed, assuming you properly apply the product. This reminds me of my experience regarding home-built, or for that matter, commercial-built new aircraft. All too often, these new aircraft have some 'fatal' flaw, but it's soon and carefully investigated, fixed, and from then on it's a very good aircraft. But because of human nature, the original problem carries on, and becomes 'an old wives tale', sorry girls ;-) So, in summary, the original possible problem of metaldahyde slug/snail poisen being a big deal problem with household pets is, these days, hogwash, at least it you follow the instructions about proper application. Both of us dearly love our cats, both for their wonderful personalities and the fact that they keep the deadly voles away. Oh, BTW, they're all beautiful children substitutes, but I digress. After literally hundreds of hours of reading, I took the plunge, and have no regrets. Our fantastic cats are still going great, along with all the birds, bees, worms, frogs, toads, and so forth and so on. And, at least in years where I don't forget that the little buggers such as snails, cutworms, and such garden ruiners are running at least a few weeks early, such as I did this year, shame on me, the product keeps our gardens much more tour-worthy for many more weeks than those who don't attack the problem. Here, at least, is our choice: Have a nice looking garden for 5 weeks, or 12 or so weeks (Zone 4). Even though, with our size garden, it costs us about $120 do do a good job keeping it more hole-free each year, we find it is worth it. As always, your results may vary, and fwiw, hh

I see possum carcasses frquently along the side of the road when I drive in the suburbs but witnessed the first live one I've ever seen in my rather urban neighborhood a couple of nights ago when walking my puppy. He was strolling up my neighbor's driveway, stopped to take a good look at us and then "hurried" along his way. Maybe that explains why slugs have never been much of a problem in my garden? Who knew??