Whether you feed them expensive hostas or cheap lettuce they are going to get bigger and fatter and need to eat more so try lobbing them in the road so they can be run over, the slug pub, the wildlife friendly pellets, the copper tape, the grit.........
I live in a cul-de-suc on a small, quiet estate and there's next to no traffic. I got my first "proper" garden in 2007 and like most people probably do, I researched slug control online and all I really found is that some things work for some people and for others, nothing works. I did try slug pellets (moderate success) but I'm not happy with using them now, wildlife friendly or not, nematodes didn't seem to do a lot, and copper tape did nothing to save my first (and so far only) attempt at lupins.
I am not an aggressive person @februarysgirl and avoid gratuitous violence in any form but when you find several months of work and the hope of future dinners reduced to stalks it does dampen the inhibitions
I am watching myself very carefully though as I now have no sense of wrongdoing when I pick up the scissors, or squeamishness - quite the reverse
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
The only real answer is to grow things in the ground that they don't eat like penstemon,geum,pulmonaria, aquilegia,erysmum spring to mind but there are many, many others and grow slug delights like hostas, lettuce etc in containers where you can keep an eye on them.
I'd say the first twenty are harder then it becomes second nature. Snipping them saved all my hostas and salad leaves last year, nature is cruel and sometimes gardening has to be about making despatch choices. I can't feel too bad about affording them a quick death, so many people are happy to boil to death ants or poison them. I'm not about to open a slug sanctuary 😉
I'm sorry to say that your plan is flawed in two ways: first, slugs and snails eat a variety of plants at different times so they will not just decamp and settle on your hostas or lettuce. Secondly, the more you feed them, the more they will breed and eventually, will spread out even further and eat even more. You have a simple choice - remove them or put up with them.
Not so much my plan, just another method I've read that some people use that, like every other one, some swear by and others find useless. The hedgehog snuffles round that patch at night and blackbirds like to scramble around there throughout the day and slugs can't breed if they've been eaten. As an addition, I think I'll collect what ones I find and put them in a jar (with airholes) overnight and in the morning, tip them into the mesh dish on bird feeder stand as an easy meal.
I am not an aggressive person @februarysgirl and avoid gratuitous violence in any form but when you find several months of work and the hope of future dinners reduced to stalks it does dampen the inhibitions
I am watching myself very carefully though as I now have no sense of wrongdoing when I pick up the scissors, or squeamishness - quite the reverse
I spent months planning the makeover with weeks of breaking my back putting the raised beds together, choosing the plants and the one flower I was looking forward to more than any other, is unsalvageable. With some of the others gone as well, the beds are going to look gappy rather than the colourful displays I'd spent a fortune on putting together. But I just can't bring myself to snip them in half. I stomped the shiznit out of lily beetles but I can't be as ruthless with slugs.
Planning and hard graft is a good start @februarysgirl but gardening is more about patience and understanding the long-term behaviour of your climate and soil. I'd see this early frustration as a great place to start, the raised bed may not look like your mind's eye would like it to, but it will provide you with a solid base on which to built on in the coming years. If you need some instant gratification throw in some annuals and stand back 😉
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I use slug gone wool pellets they are available at Wilko and find them effective
I am watching myself very carefully though as I now have no sense of wrongdoing when I pick up the scissors, or squeamishness - quite the reverse
It'll either work or it won't.
You're one to watch then