Apple pomace-based baits are not very effective on slugs in Oregon. And carbaryl in a bait greatly reduces populations of earthworms and predator beetles, beneficial creatures in farming and gardening. Only this spring did they begin to reappear. Most of these slugs came from unhatched eggs that can withstand long periods under water or populations of mobile slugs that made it to a high point in the field. It's not always glamorous being a slug researcher, but according to Fisher, DeFrancesco and Horton, those early mornings slogging through the mud, counting dead slugs and digging plugs of grass and soil to take back to the lab do have their charms.
Slugs are really interesting creatures biologically.
It's slimy work, but someone's got to do it. Commonly sold in pellet form, the substance works by paralyzing and dehydrating slugs. This dehydrates them. Or if they eat enough of it, it is a stomach poison. The next morning, the South Africans noticed an accumulation of paralyzed and dead slugs and snails around the fuel.