Learn how to control a slug problem in your garden without using dangerous pesticides.

Slugs are common garden pests that thrive in moist conditions. Slugs will usually feed in the early morning hours or at night. During the day slugs can be found hiding under low branches, rocks, boards, and under leaves. So how do you get rid of slugs effectively?

Your non-toxic options are:

• Hand pick them from your garden and put them into a pail.
• Sprinkle salt on the slugs. This will cause them to melt and you can dispose of them without worrying that they will return.
• Keep your leaves raked up to minimize hiding places for slugs.
• Beer traps are another non-poisonous way to get control of a slug problem. Take cans that have just a couple of inches of beer in the bottom of them and bury them to the lip in your garden. The slugs will fall into the beer and become trapped. You should change the beer every few days to keep the smell fresh. Another way to use beer traps is to fill shallow dishes with beer and scatter them about your garden. Empty the traps every couple of days and replace with fresh beer.
• Put sharp substances around your plants. Slugs have soft bodies and do not like to crawl over sharp things. You can sprinkle broken eggshells or pine needles around your plants and these will provide a good mulch and fertilizer for your soil as well as keep the slugs away.
• If you put a few leaves of lettuce out in your garden bed at night you can lure the slugs away from your plants. In the morning you will find the slugs on the lettuce leaves and you can dispose of them. You can also put a wooden board in your garden and the slugs will hide under it during the day and you can turn it over and dispose of them.
• Another safe method for repelling slugs is copper tape. Slugs' bodies react with an electrical jolt when they touch copper. Put copper tape around your vulnerable plants - the slugs will not cross over it. The copper tape will last a long time and you can pull it up to use again the next year. Other barriers that slugs don't like to cross are sand, seaweed, lime and salt. Don't put too much salt around your garden as this can damage your soil and kill your plants.
• If you are patient and diligent you can rid your garden of slugs without resorting to dangerous poisons. If you can't get them all don't worry, a few slugs in your garden can actually be beneficial to the soil.