Wow nice drenching. Especially down your way!
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$100 retail snail bait = mind blown. I just grab a flashlight in the evening and foot stomp caterpillars, moths, slugs, snails, and such. Itâs mostly a chance to get to know the lot after hours. 
What problem do you have with slugs? They are not an issue in my area.
Well, thatâs because you live in zone 6A, Clark 
For Richard and I, in our very mild climate, the snails and slugs donât get a freeze. We are the snail capital of the USA here in coastal S Calif. Slugs, too, but the snails are just terrible here.
Patty S.
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I donât pay retail. Itâs one of the reasons I bother with pesticide site and applicatorâs licenses.
That wasnât the point. The point was that it is still $100 retail of snail bait. A pesticide site and applicators license is also a curious thing to be proud of.
If a person in Los Angeles were to buy 50 lbs of Leaf Life brand of Sluggo online without a license, it would cost them about $90 including shipping. The bag (in my experience) would last a year, maybe longer for someone with less plants of concern. So it wasnât a $100 application.
Curiously, in California you can buy better (less environmental impact, more pest specific) truly organic pesticides with a license than you can over-the-counter. The reason for the license requirement is that the products are highly concentrated or in high volume; i.e., a spill would be bad news. With a license, a reported spill requires only that it is properly contained and removed â but an overapplication or unreported spill carries serious legal penalties. The State does come around and perform random testing on plant material, soil, and nearby drainage systems every 2-3 years. I am far more afraid of consumer use of pesticides than those by licensed applicators.
Further, I am part of the Citrus ACP and Greening disease monitoring program. For this I am using both a foliar and soil drench pesticide required of nursery growers of Citrus within the quarantine region. It can only be purchased with an applicators license, and only applied at registered sites.
To be honest, Iâd rather hardscape my entire lot.
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Can they be cooked into Escargots?
Iâm still unclear what damage the snails and slugs do? Do they eat produce or damage plants?
Yes to both, Clark. They abound here in the eastern rain forests but bury to warmer soil temps come winter as others indicated. They eat the leaves of brassicas, even mar the bulb of kohlrabi so you have these ugly holes in them - which you can cut around. Forget growing cabbage if you donât deal with them (I use iron phosphate which doesnât hurt the soil but wrecks havoc on their digestion, I believe. Some argue it benefits the soil, but probably not a lot). They are notorious for destroying strawberries and will decimate hostas.
Iâm not a âflashlight at nightâ person - I tried it and didnât see anything - maybe I didnât want to, LOL. Kinda slimey things.
My understanding is that if you have ducks they will greatly reduce the population of slugs. Not sure if chickens do this, or if either rid the area of snails.
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The closer you are to the coast the worse they are in CA. Here in NY we have mostly slugs instead, although I managed to import some species with a shell when I brought them in with wood chips. They are smaller than the CA version and have an advantage over slugs by being able to survive more dryness. This species is less a nuisance and more attractive than slugs. We even get the huge disgusting ones like you see in coastal N. CA. Maybe not the same banana slug species but equally huge and disgusting.
Snails and slugs are voracious eaters of just about every plant. Some are more favored than others - many succulents, especally aloes and kalanchoes. They also LOVE citrus, cannas, ajuga, acanthus, hibiscus and they ravage hostas so badly, I canât even think of growing them. They make large holes and can even eat entire leaves depending on how heavy the pest pressure. The eat citrus fruit and will damage them so badly, the fruit is lost. They like it damp, so their populations explode after our winter rains. Sluggo works okay (iron phosphate pellets), but sadly, not as well as metaldehyde, but metaldehyde is attractive to dogs, and will poison them (and people), so I donât use it.
Yes, ducks love snails, and chickens will also eat them, but I cannot have either on my property (HOA). So, I also put down a lot of Sluggo after rains.
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Well, donât know if they are the same snail the French use for Escargot, but since I donât like Escargot, I wouldnât know or want to try! 
I can sympathize with you Californians on the slugs. I tried to grow a vegetable garden when I was caring for my aged father out there for a couple years. I figured it would be so easy in California. The ground squirrels and slugs were nearly my undoing.
Yup. My little veggie garden is elevated. Keeps (most) of the snails out, and the bunnies at bay. Canât keep the ground squirrels or birds out, though. Many folks here in my neighborhood who have veggie gardens have them completely enclosed and in raised beds inside the enclosure. Itâs a lot of work to grow veggies in our perfect climate!
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@Richard, good to see that you took my hardscape comment with the sense of humor that was intended.
Slugs and snails are such simple/dumb creatures that it seems like overkill to spread out bait for them.
Hereâs a decent write up on the product: Sluggo gets OMRI seal of approval
âThe other caveat is that organic farmers are restricted in their use of even Sluggo, which contains only iron phosphate. They are allowed it only if they are also using other, nonchemical, methods of snail and slug control to reduce the need for bait. You should do this too.â
As previously mentioned, they move about when the sun goes down and are easily smashed. Leave out a board, hollowed out grapefruit half, watermelon rind, etc, and they congregate underneath to be easily smashed in the morning.
As for the damage, it too can be managed by planning and planting:
âOne for the bug, one for the crow, one to rot, and two to grow.â
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The problem I have with the stomping method is they are on my plants! And with 60 fruiting trees, shrubs, vines, plus another 50 vegetables and herbs â staying up all night picking them off with a flashlight is a bit intractable.
Sluggo is homogenized oatmeal and 1% iron phosphate â a naturally occurring salt. The reason for the limitation on quantity (applies to both organic and conventional farming) is that over application could get into fresh waterways in a concentrated aggregate and kill native mollusca there. Otherwise, iron phosphate is a necessary mineral for many terrestrial life forms. Youâll find it listed in the nutrient section of consumer vitamin and food products.
BTW, OMRI is a meaningless certification for licensed commercial organic farm operations. It is NOP that matters.
About two months ago, at nighttime, I went to check on my peach x almond hybrid seedlings, and I found two slugs devouring one of my red-leaf seedlings.
They were so gross. Eeewwww!
Temperatures this week in the High Desert will be in the low 20s to low 30s.
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