[Growster...]

Aw, come on, you're not going to give up gardening because slugs are taking over and eating everything you've paid your hard earned cash for, nurtured with minute care, and grown on!

Slugs are pests which do nothing for the reproduction of your food, and your survival (in the extreme of course). You're in charge, and can use a humane way to get rid of them.

Your familiy's table, or the slugs' table.

Take your pick.

[hubballi]

Habbali,

You have a lot of slugs because you have a small, shady, walled garden and you over water and over feed all your plants.  It is slug heaven ! 

Stop watering so much and use some organic slug pellets to kill them.  You will never win against them otherwise,  these are best:

Advanced Slug Pellets

Shop around to get a good price.

I don't over feed. I feed everything once a week with comfry and occasionally feed the leafy veg liquid chicken manure.

[Aunt Sally]

Once a week IS too much. 

The over watering is a more serious problem though. !!!

[hubballi]

Monty Don says to feed once a week. Most books and other gardener's say the same.

Runner beans need watering often as they dry out.

[NN2Blue]

One of the only advantages of the ludicrously dry Northampton environment; almost no slug and snail problem. I will have no hesitation in using the "organic" ferric slug pellets however. My parents house in South Wales was originally built on the Afon Llywd flood plain. Could go out in the garden armed with a long needle on a bamboo cane and collect 800 in a couple of hours. It's war!!

[Aunt Sally]

Monty Don says to feed once a week. Most books and other gardener's say the same.

Runner beans need watering often as they dry out.

Don't take everything the TV gardeners say too literally - they don't know your growing conditions.  Your soil should never be so wet that you can squeeze water out of it with your hand (which yours was).  If you are feeding once a week then you should use quarter to half strength fertiliser.  Your comfrey tea is probably far too strong.

Most plants should dry out slightly before being watered or the roots will waterlog and die.

[hubballi]

I used beer traps and got loads of the fat type. They were all bloated and blueish. Not pretty. Even some of their insides were coming out. Some of the other slugs were feeding on the dead bodies. Probably smelling the beer inside them.

I will keep on with the beer.(for the slugs of course ;-)

[hubballi]

I can't believe how many large slugs I am finding in the traps every day and we only have a small garden. How long do I have to keep this up to get rid of all the big ones ?

Even in the lean to greenhouse I am finding giant orange slugs. How do they get in ? It's sealed. I really hate them.

[joyfull]

it only takes one to sneak in and lay hundreds of eggs - remember slugs can climb 

[Ice]

You've been providing the ideal conditions for slugs to thrive in for a very long time so don't expect the problem to disappear overnight.  Constantly complaining about it won't solve the problem. There have been a lot of replies from people trying to help, so just follow them and post again when a decent amount of time has passed.  I think you have exhausted all the ideas we can come up with and to be frank, I am running out of sympathy.

[joyfull]

keep ducks - they love slugs and water (mind you they also love plants  ).

[hubballi]

Giant orange slugs can't come from eggs laid this season can they ?

[joyfull]

Slug eggs take four weeks to hatch. They mature in less than a year and can live for over two years. Each slug is capable of producing 40,000 offspring and they love moist conditions 

[Nicki85]

I have a lot of slugs on my plot.  They seem to live under the weed control fabric I put down at the beginning of this year.  There is a huge variety of different types!  I actually think they look quite cute 

But... I can't have 'em eating my veg so I always have bait out for them... It's a bit of a slug grave yard in places  I usually put bait in covered bait pots in strategic locations and it seems to do the trick!  Makes sure none gets into the environment (except through the slugs that ingest it) or gets eaten by an unknowing dog. 

The lifecycle of a slug means that any individual can lay upto 300 eggs at any time of the year.   If the weather is warm it can take only 10 days for them to hatch  (I guess this relates to your greenhouse...)  They mature in less than a year and can live upto two years... They are pretty remarkable little monsters!! Is there a reason you do not want to use bait ?  (sorry, i haven't read through your previous posts if you have already answered this!)  Have you tried coffee grounds?

[hubballi]

I don't want to use bait because of the way it kills them as well as it being dangerous to wildlife. I have frogs and cats.

The greenhouse has only been up since this April si the large mature ones can't have been there as they wouldn't be that big.