Need an organic, cruelty-free method to stop slugs from eating garden?

Does anyone have ideas to keep the slugs and snails from eating up my garden without using chemicals? I don't want to slaughter all the little critters, just keep them away from my plants and vegetables. They've eaten up my new young sunflowers already. Thank you.

Need an organic, cruelty-free method to stop slugs from eating garden?
for natural control where you do not kill the slugs (but they will be killed by predators-nature is not cruelty free, ever) encourage toads, lightning bugs and other predators of slugs and their eggs into your garden. this can take a year pr more if your garden is not already in decent ecological balance. Leave tall places in the garden for the predators to hide and have shallow pans of water about so they have something to drink. Toads also like piles of stones in shady places.



If you want to control the slugs for this planting season put down a board and check under it daily. Remove any slugs you see and put them in salt of wood ash to kill them. if you don't want to kill them than move them to neighbor's yard so they eat the neighbors plants and not yours (which is a decidedly unfriendly thing to do but at least you won't be killing the slugs. But realize if you do not control the slugs by killing them they will continue to reproduce and eat more and more in your garden)
Reply:This is from the Gardenguide website:



Certain plants will repel slugs. Ginger, garlic, mint, chives, red lettuce, red cabbage, sage, fennel, foxglove, mint, chicory %26amp; endive seem to be less prone to slug attack. Plant them around the perimeter of your garden to keep them from infiltrating.



Aside from diverting slugs to where you want them, gardeners can also use certain barriers to keep slugs out of particular spots. A ring of abrasive material such as eggshells, sand, wood shavings, diatomaceous earth, hair or ash can be placed around susceptible plants. These materials do have to be kept dry, however, in order to work. After rains, top them up again. Cutting the tops and bottoms off of plastic containers and using them as a cylinder around young seedlings can construct a more permanent barrier.



One of the most effective barriers, however, seems to be copper tape, as it works wet or dry. When slugs and snails make contact with the copper, there is a toxic reaction, similar to an electric shock, which repels them. The minimum width for the copper barriers needs to be at least two inches; slug barriers sold in nurseries are often smaller and should be doubled or tripled when installed.
Reply:I can't offer you advice that doesn't kill them, but I can offer you a pain free method of doing it.



Place shallow dishes filled with beer in your garden near the plants that they eat.



The sugar scent from the beer attracts them, and the fumes (painlessly) overwhelm them, much like how carbon monoxide can kill humans without any pain. They simply fall asleep and never wake up.
Reply:Do you have time to watch a 3-minute video? Cultural methods and trapping can make a huge difference.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onctrmf_2...