Poor old slugs; you might even call them garden thugs. What a bad rap they have and for the most part well deserved. They certainly can't be trusted around our fair hostas, seedlings, tubers, fruits, well you name it. The slugs will have a go at it.

According to research done at the University of Guelph, here in Ontario, Canada there are three species of slug commonly seen. If you are like me you won't remember their Latin names but suffice it to say that these slugs, in company with the banded wood snail, are some of the most damaging of our garden pests.

Sightings have been made of the giant spotted slug as well. Yikes! The last time I saw one of these foot long monsters of the mollusk world was in California of the 1960's. But in those hazy, hippy days you never knew if what you were seeing was real or a product of some recreational drug. The fact that they are moving, however slowly, our way could be interpreted as either another sign of global warming or another recreational drug misdemeanor.

So what can we do to stop their inexorable march and munch campaign? One advantage is that we have computers and they don't. We can do research to determine their habits, their likes and dislikes. Then we make sure that we are very bad hosts to these would-be visitors.

Mulching is a wonderful way to maintain moisture for your plants while conserving water. Unfortunately it serves to provide a haven for mollusks like slugs and snails; as does plant debris, old boards, leaf litter and logs. Keeping your garden clean and tidy and the mulch well away from the base of any of your plants should help.

If you want to avoid the use of chemical controls in your garden you have come to the right place. You could try barriers like gravel, sand, diatomaceous earth, used coffee grounds or ashes around your plants. I have also tried crushed egg shells and they work very well.

As for the much-touted beer remedy, I put the tuna can with an inch of beer out one night temptingly close to my lettuce. I fell asleep secure in the knowledge that I had hit on a humane method that would rid me of the pest.

Several hours later I was awakened from a sound sleep by high pitched singing. It was a bunch of rowdy, drunken slugs. They careened around the lettuce plants singing "Roll out the barrel" as I slowly slunk away in defeat. These were wily slugs that had merely hung over the edge of the tuna can and had a sip, not a slip. It was time to rethink the whole matter.

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