Slugs and "rolly-polly" bugs (as a child, we called them ant lions, but this could be just one of the really weird things my dad would tell me) can be deterred by an application of hot pepper - red is good. Go to the grocery store and find a big cheap bulk jar of it and sprinkle it around. Sluggo is good to tackle the slug problem with.
One day I asked my dad about the lillies we had growing around the palm trees in the front yard. Some were white and some were orange. I asked my dad why certain ones were orange. He told me there was rust in the water that they got. I was about 3 or 4 at the time, so of course I believed him.