Master Gardener: Tips for keeping slugs and snails from destroying your garden

Q: We have been overrun by slugs and snails this spring. They are eating our tender, young transplants as well as some of our established plants. What can we do to control them?
A: Slugs and snails are very destructive members of the mollusk family. They are primarily nocturnal and leave silvery slime trails of death in their wake.
In order to reduce the slug and snail population, you want to remove (or at least reduce) their hiding places. Ice plant and other overgrown ground cover, debris, boa