Slugs are the common name for those slimy crawlers that squirm their way over your garden eating your leaves and your vegetables. Not to mention their slimy coating leaves a trail wherever they move. Slugs often hide out during the daylight hours. You'll only know you have a slug infestation if you either notice their slime trails during the day, or inspect your garden by flashlight at night.

Slugs and Snails are of the same family. The biggest difference between the two are shell and no shell. There are some in between variations of the gastropods, some with small shells, some with internal shells, but only once the slug can make a full retraction into the shell does it become a snail.

All you have to have is one slug or snail to take over your garden. These little guys are hermaphrodites and thus can reproduce by themselves. So if you've got one, you could have a hundred more in no time. Slugs and snails eat mostly vegetarian - they often will eat leaves and stems of your plants and sometimes will munch on the fruits and vegetables of your garden. Their favorite food is vegetables so often you can look there first if you are suspecting slug activity.

But if you're looking to eliminate slugs and snails from your garden some good predators of the slug are garter snakes, as well as many beetles and other garden creatures. Salt is the most common method of controlling garden slugs but this truly is a cruel death. This is equivalent to sentencing them to a death in an sandy dry desert. The salt will extract all the moisture from their bodies and thus kill them. Very cruel indeed!

The best and most ethical way to eliminate gastropods in your garden is to make them a snail and slug hotel. Take a wide board and lay it on the ground over night. Place the board next to an area you suspect slug and snail activity. In the morning, the slugs and snails will retreat from the sun and heat of the day and take refuge on the underside of the board "hotel". You can now take the board and shake the pests off in a nearby field or forest. Stomping on the board to kill them will only attract more slugs and snails so you best bet is to actually transport them away.

If you have a friend who fishes, these little guys make great bait - call them over to pick them up and take them fishing. I'm sure you're fishing friends will thank you for them.

But what about some of the benefits of having slugs. Well, slugs and snails offer great composting to things that you don't eat. They are a vital contributor in the balance of the ecosystem and without them many functions of the composting in your garden would cease to perform. This doesn't mean you have to love them, but hating them might be a bit harsh. Why not take them to your compost and let them have a feast there instead of your cucumbers. They will enjoy that just as much and in the end will help your future garden.