Thank you for saving my Hosta's from slugs

I wanted to thank you all for an old post on slugs and how putting sand around plants keeps the slugs off them. Well it worked and all my Hosta's thank you as well!

Are you kidding? what kind of sand? ....pray tell ...please....where is the original thread?
Sylvia

I just put sand from the sand box and have to add to it every so often
Here's the thread

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/92756/

Thank you Mobi...the collars sound good too.
Sylvia

Daisyruffles, I'm glad you asked this question, because I've been wondering about slugs, too, and I like to be prepared beforehand for disasters when I can. You should have seen what these critters did to my June sowing of a variety Asian greens belonging to the cabbage family one year when I set them outside grrr.

Your post made me go hunt for an answer. Welp, it turns out that what I've been doing to prevent tiny seeds like primrose seed from sloshing all around the containers is a great control for slugs, too:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/92756/

I put a layer of a gritty type of sand on top of the seed-starting medium. The sand has a range of very fine particles to a few small pebbles - the texture is kinda sharp. Then I sprinkled the seeds on top. At that point, I should have just patted them down and left it at that, but I did sprinkle a very tiny amount more of sand over that. For larger seed, sand is what I'll use to cover them with from now on - keeping appropriate depth in mind.

For seeds especially dear to my heart like primrose seeds, I wintersowed them in recycled quart-size yogurt containers inside a baggie, using chicken wire for a roof. For seeds not so expensive, I used the loot-bag technique ( http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Loot_Bag_Tents.html ) (In the loot bag technique, the "soil" settles quite a bit, so put 3 cups in, not just 2 1/2 cups). A layer of this sand went over the surface of all of them.

It's Slug City around here at least as early as April if not sooner, so I'll be putting down a "moat" of sand around my WS containers - with Safer's slug product waiting in the wings just in case.

Daisy, sent you dmail

Good idea. So far I haven't had problems with slugs in my winter sown containers but you never know. I had mixed results with the sandpaper around my hosta's. The sand has worked the best so far, except I have to keep applying it and I have clay soil, which adding sand to is not a great idea.

I found some of those devils eating holes in my gerber daisys and put out cut potatoes. Found several of them today that thought they were safe and warm under those potatoes. Little did they know. I will try the sand too. Thanks.