A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 snails and slugs in california garden and house!

Hi
I am newbie garderner from east coat just moved to west coast. I have a major snail and slug problem in my garden... have tried beer, snail bait (but toxic!!) and cleaned/weeded and have lots of fragrant plants slugs hate (lavender, geraniums etc). They seemed to go down in numbers and beter with the recent sunny days,. But recently, we found big black slugs squeezing into very small cracks in the house and doorframes! YUK!!!!!!
Any advice, does anyone else in the beautiful bay area gardens have slugs?? Or am i the only one with the slimy buggers trying to get in the house!
Also, I hear diatomous earth is good, any advice on this?

Help this new Cali girl from getting grossed out and get her flower garden back!

thanks!

Hi caligirl
Welcome to the forum
Nice to meet you.
You could try dry egg shells, when the slugs crawl onto the shells it cuts them apart.

Hi there glad to have you here with us all, welcome!!

I'm going to move your post to the plant pests and problems forum where it will get more replies....

I moved here last August from the east, also. The # of snails really surprised me. I thought that SoCal would be a bad place for snails. Hundreds get cooked by the sun each day. But, there are thousands.

Here is a link that I found usefull.

snails / slugs

Yup, eggshells should do it. I save all of my eggshells in a gallon ziplock bag. Crush them and then scatter them around your plants and around your house. You can go to a local diner and ask them if they could save their eggshells from the morning rush. Most of them don't mind.

Hi Everyone
Thanks for the advice, looks like egg shells are the way to go, will have to start wolfing down omelettes!
The UC site is good. I found a number of British forums where people in the have them in their house.. we have found a couple slimy buggers in the kitchen... Yikk!!! I am glad to hear at least one other person in norther CA has them too!
Have anyone tried DE, I reallly prefer not to use the pesticide baits....

Moving from Toronto, Cananda, I do love the new experience of gardening all year and all the great West coast plants.. I just pruned back all the flowers and bushes so the slugs/snails have no where to hide, they are baking in the sun as I write. Ha ha ha ha. Ok, so I am a little slug-hatred-driven at the moment....

Thanks again..!