Ugh...Slugs!

My slugs refuse to pose for pictures, so this is a non-life-size representation. 
Standard legal disclosures apply.

I've just gotta get something off my chest before we talk about Mr. Slimy.  It's early April and we really shouldn't be fighting mosquitoes yet, right?  I must have been breathing too much or something as I was transplanting my tomatoes because today I am COVERED head to two in itchy mosquito bites.   They even got me on my stomach through my t-shirt.  Apparently, I need to make some more of those homemade mosquito traps that I posted about earlier this week.

And somehow J. never got bitten.  I told him it's either because he's too old and tough or because I'm tender and sweet.  I swear, life is definitelly not fair.

On top of that, I see a slug has been feasting on my tender little cabbage plants.  I can only assume that they'll be delighted when the lettuce seedlings pop up also.  It's been raining, so I haven't had a chance to put in the new in-ground swimming pool for the slugs.  What's that you say?  Unless you're going to stand out there with a skewer to stab them or a salt shaker to shrivel them up 24 hours a day (and, by the way, slugs like to come out at night), then the easiest way to get rid of them is to bury a shallow dish full of beer so that the rim is even with the soil level.  Slugs are alcoholics, you see, so they can't resist climbing in and drowning.  Okay, maybe I made up the alcoholic part, but it does work. 

I was just doing a little research also and one suggestion is to cover your seedlings with a cut-off 2-liter bottle - kind of like a terarium.  Just cut the bottom off the bottle and discard it, sink the cutoff part into the soil and then remove the twisty cap.  Great way to recycle those 2-liter bottles, and you can reuse them over and over.  Heck, you could even put a label on them with the name of the plant that it's protecting.  My brain is brimming with ideas on this one.....

In all seriousness, though, slugs can really do some damage to your garden and they need to be dealt with.  Some other ways to help avoid the slug problem are to keep clippings, weeds and other garden debris away from your plants (slugs like to hide in it), and I may try sprinkling diatomaceous earth or crushed egg shells around the plants as well.  DE and the shells will cut the slugs tender undersides as they crawl across it and kill them.  I've also heard coffee grounds, talcum powder, or even mulching with pieces of shingles.  Just remember that anything you're sprinkling around your plants has to be done over again if it rains.

Oh, and here's a tip:  if you get slug slime (gak!) on your hands, just pour a little white vinegar in your hands in then wash it off with water.  Yet another household use for vinegar in addition to cleaning.

Got a tried and true method for dealing with this common garden pest?  Share it in the comments!

This post is linked to today's Rural Thursday Blog Hop and Country Homemaker Hop. 

Hop on over and find out what everybody else is up to!