I don't know if Corry's has changed their product completely or if two are now available...what is your active ingredient?

The newer Corry product may be sodium ferric which is effective and safer for wildlife, pets, compared to the original active ingredient of Metaldehyde which was also very effective but more toxic and carries risk to animals, birds. Least problematic of all are the iron phosphate baits, and they work too but work more slowly than the others, you also don't have the satisfaction of seeing that they have worked, the slugs slink away and stop feeding, die rather than be right there dead in front of your eyes the next day.

Read your label, see what warnings it carries for pets and children, just what active ingredient you have applied to your garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slug and Snail baits, New Corry's

Available only in some markets and both contain Metaldehyde, a very toxic poison.

I believe dogs may eat the slug bait you have so be careful it you have a dog. I vote for iron phosphate bait. I use it and it works. Since they stop feeding after they eat it, that is all I care about.

Kimser, Corrys Slug and Snail Killer in the yellow box lists the active ingredient as sodium ferric, not Metaldehyde - there is no Metaldehyde in it. Let's not confuse the OP.

Here is a link that might be useful: Corry's box/label

I am the other Kim but I didn't look into this thread enough before I commented. I didn't know about the newer sodium ferric. It seems that hotzcatz has a safe bait now. Happy Slugging!

Personally, I'm all for toxicity when it comes to slugs. I'd hoped to get more of the DEATH and not the KILLER since apparently the Killer lets them crawl off and die somewhere else. I like knowing how many slugs were killed so I'll know when the slug population no longer needs applications of Death or Killer.

I looked all over the yellow boxes and couldn't find any ingredient lists anywhere. Looking online, it seems Home DePot carries the Death and everyone else seems to have the Killer.

Well, we have the lesser toxic one, from the looks of it so the slugs will die off out of sight and I won't know when to reapply. Guess I'll just wait for the slugs to start munching on seedlings again before adding more slug Killer.

But the seedlings are sprouting and haven't been munched down by slugs yet so maybe the Killer is working.

hotcatz, you don't have to wait till you see damage, just reapply about every 2-3 weeks or after heavy rain especially if you have tasty seedlings to attract them.

And the active ingredient has to be on the box by law. Look right under where the weight of the product is printed on the box front. Maybe 2 or three lines which all end in a percentage. It's there on the corry's example in my link Corry's box/label above. Most of the contents will be inert ingredients there only to carry and deliver the one that counts.

Here in coastal WA I bait with a different product than the Corry's about once a month, approx. 11 months out of the year, sometimes skipping January :)

Oh, you're right, it is on the box. But who ever looks on the FRONT of the box for the ingredient list? 3.25% metaldehyde versus 5% sodium ferric. (If I'm remembering names and amounts correctly.) Doesn't sodium ferric sound like iron salts? Sounds like some sort of rust. Well, whatever it is, it is hopefully killing slugs.

I don't usually like putting out poisons unless there's a need so just putting some out every month isn't probably going to happen. It also means I'd need to pay attention to a schedule and that doesn't work well for me. Probably what will happen is I will just wait until I see slug damage or slug trails again before reapplying any Corry's of any variety.

I've also ordered some diatomacious earth which is supposed to deter slugs. The area being protected from slugs is a raised bed garden made of three layers of concrete blocks stacked and filled with soil. If a circle of diatomacious earth was applied around the base of the raised bed gardens and the Corry's killed off all the slugs in the gardens, would the diatomacious earth keep any new slugs from coming in?

Do slugs lay eggs or somehow do something to propagate before they got killed off by the Corry's? If I put the circle of the diatomacious earth around the garden and new slugs hatch, they'd not be able to get out, although one hopes residual Corry's would do them in before they did much damage.

Would a line of hydrated lime around the edge of the raised bed garden deter slugs? Hydrated lime on frogs will kill them and frogs and slugs seem somewhat similar?

The MSDS's for both that I saw listed Metaldehyde as the active ingredient.
The package label must, by law, list the ingredients and the percentage of each. If the package you find on a store shelf does not list the ingredients tell the store manager they are violating federal law.

This post was edited by kimmsr on Thu, Sep 12, 13 at 6:01

Hotcatz, if you are using the newer Corry's without Metaldehyde, you are not actually applying a poison to your garden. From the EPA: " Sodium Ferric EDTA is comprised of iron in a sodium EDTA chelate.( as you suspected). Humans are regularly exposed to small amounts of Sodium Ferric EDTA. The use of Sodium Ferric EDTA as a molluscicide on ornamental crops and around food crops is not expected to increase human exposure or risk. Sodium Ferric EDTA has little to no known toxic effects. Sodium Ferric EDTA is an eye irritant, and product labels describe precautions that users should follow to prevent the products from getting in their eyes. Sodium Ferric EDTA is not expected to have adverse effects on non-target organisms or the environment. An acute toxicity test on birds showed little or no toxicity."

They do lay eggs and your concrete block raised bed could even be providing hiding places for them, or egg laying places. A ring a diatomaceous earth may help, but it won't necessarily keep all out, and do you know it must be reapplied after rains?

Slugs are mollusks and not very much like frogs which are beneficial to your garden since they eat insects. I have naturally acidic soil and grow mostly plants that adapt to that so I don't know what to say about the lime. I do lime my lawn occasionally, if that has an impact on slugs I certainly haven't noticed it...