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Welcome to All About Slugs, your ultimate slug and snail resource site. We’re the best place to turn to for information about getting rid of slugs and snails in your yard or garden. We offer how-to pages, videos, test results, resistant plant lists and an ever-growing array of resources to help you succeed in eliminating these unwelcome invaders. In fact, we promise you this: No site is more focused on slugs and snails or more dedicated to helping you eliminate them. Look around, and let us prove ourselves to you.

Natural and Safe

We focus on reliable information and natural, tested solutions that really work.  We never recommend anything that isn’t safe for children, pets, wildlife and the environment. You can control these pesky pests and still enjoy a beautiful, safe and natural yard and garden.

Discover More

They may be a serious pest in the garden but slugs and snails are also surprising, intriguing — and even cute in their own way.  Discover the fascinating habits, anatomy and life cycles of these unique creatures. Get up close and personal with some of the best photos on the web. Enjoy slug stories, art, photos, limericks and even some truly inspired slug poetry!

 

“All About Slugs is a virtual sluggapedia of slime”

– Tom T.

6 Steps To An (Almost)

Slug-Free Garden

Let’s face it, this is nature, there will always be a few slugs but that’s OK. Just follow the steps below and you can eliminate most damage and grow a great garden. Slug and snail control is a matter of changing a few habits, timing our attacks and using a few common tools.

1. Clean up. Slugs love cool, dark and moist spots under boards, piles of leaves, old nursery pots, weedy areas and low hanging leaves at the base of plants.  Eliminate as many hiding places as possible throughout your garden. Trim off any leaves that touch the ground. Use footers to raise your containers several inches off the ground to keep things dry. Break up large dirt clods. Finally, move the compost pile away from the garden. Compost is great stuff but it can be a slug haven, especially before it breaks down.

2. Go on Slug Patrol. Getting out in the garden and actually removing the guilty culprits can be a very effective tactic. Early morning, late evening or any rainy day makes for good hunting. During dry weather watering a few hours before will help bring them out of their hiding spots.

Four more steps to a beautiful garden

 

Eggshell Myth: Good Idea or

All Cracked Up?

We’ve heard dozens of home remedies to control slugs, some effective, some that don’t work at all. One remedy we’ve heard repeatedly involves placing a band of crushed eggshells around any plants you want to protect. In theory, any slug crossing this barrier will lacerate its soft belly and die the “death of a thousand cuts”. So does this idea really work? Well, crushed eggshells do have sharp edges and slugs do crawl around on their bellies. But we decided the only way to know for sure was to test.

The Procedure

We placed two identical leaves of lettuce in the center of our largest slug holding pen. Next, we surrounded one of those leaves with crushed eggshells and left the other open to any passing slug or snail. Then we set up the time-lapse camera and called it a day. (Slugs and snails do their best work at night – we don’t.)

Our critters are fed a balanced diet every day so we reasoned that if eggshells were really an effective deterrent they would gladly go looking for another meal. Like maybe the all-you-can-eat lettuce bar right next door.

So what happened? The results surprised even us.

Experiment #1

The setup: two lettuce leaves, one surrounded by eggshells. Add slugs.

7:13 pm: Guess who’s coming to dinner

 The results: good idea or all cracked up?

 

Slimey Science

Slugs and snails are facinating creatures perfectly adapted to their environment. Who else do you know that has retractable eyes, both male and female genitals, is related to cuttlefish and can climb like a monkey (maybe a little slower).

Learn more and take the 360 degree anatomy tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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