Many, many slugs

And for that, I'm now much more thankful than I was a month ago. You see, I've been picking slugs for the past month, a few here, a few there, and feeding them to my ducklings. I've identified at least three visually distinct varieties, and I've found out that most slugs in my garden are around 2 mm. in length - tiny boogers, and most likely the reason many of my plants look like they've been hit with a shotgun.

Anyhoo, four days ago, I mowed down the edges of the garden and moved a bunch of stuff. The edges had high grasses and some old wood and such, and I picked a few slugs as I moved things. After mowing, Phoebe and I placed some cardboard strips along the edge of the garden, and the next day turned them to find MANY, MANY slugs. I didn't count, but grabbed a few at a time and fed them to the ducklings. The second day, the same thing occurred. I estimated maybe fifty slugs at a time, but yesterday, to be sure, I counted.

On the third day of slug gathering... 111 slugs. And, I know I had more the previous days. This morning, the initial gathering brought 28 more slugs, and I haven't yet checked all the sites.

And I need to do more. I have to pull the grasses out of the garden, as the slugs are using the bases of those plants to hide out under the dirt during the day. If I remove that as an option, they will have to go to the cardboard. Hopefully, I will see a dramatic improvement soon.