Coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, anything that the molluscs are going to be reluctant to crawl over. Grit might work too! Good luck!

I'm not sure this could be defined as kind but it is eco friendly.

There are nematodes you can buy which kill slugs but don't harm the environment in any other way.

Google "nematode slug killer"

One of my worst habits is half drinking cups of black tea in the garden and leaving the cups all over the place. However, i've found that my slugs just love crawling into the cups for a quick slurp. So each night as it gets dark i just search out the cups and humanely remove the little blighters and accidentally squash them with my shoes.

Sink a dish in the soil and fill with beer. Put a ring of broken egg shell round plants such as Dahlias when they start sprouting. Encourage Frogs and Hedgehogs they do a marvelous job for me.

Ive started using beer traps. It seems to be doing an ok job!

Nightime is their feeding and playtime,it seems..when us lot aren't around to see them..If you have things in pots you need to protect from them,smear some Vaseline around the bottom edges..or under the rims,a favourite hiding place! Its amazing how many can lurk under there,especially snails..

From experience a mix of:

1. Beer trap works really well - you will catch loads that way.

2. Copper around pots and plants (you can buy copper tape like you can buy cellotape)

3. Cut flowers - old daff/tulip etc flowers, but them into smallish bits and leave on top of the soil - slugs and snails are lazy so go for those first.

4. They tend not to hide in plants they feed on but under damp areas like stones, pot lids, under pots, under dead plants/branches etc. If you remove these or keep to min that will help.

I have heard very good things about nematodes - basically you are putting slug parasites into the ground that are totally harmless to us and birds but kills slugs, caterpillars, weevils and I heard snails.

Yes I go with beer too, not just for myself but for those unwanted visitors.

They aren't going for the beer, so much, as they are going for the yeast it's made out of. Brewer's or baker's yeast makes an even better trap bait. Yeast-flavored iron phosphate granules also make an eco-friendly slug and snail poison bait.

Why do you want to be 'kind and eco friendly' to the bu****s?? They receive no 'kindness' from me and my big boots. ;o)

Thanks guys, my dad uses the beer trap sunken jam jar method but not only do I want to avoid killing them I can think of better uses for beer, ahem!!! Will give the eggshell thing a try, and I'm intrigued by the 'nemotodes' gonna have to go and look them up!!!

A totally different angle would be to plant something the slugs love in an area it is easy for them to get to and basically say 'here you go guys an all you can eat buffet' I view our hostas in that light :-)