Minecraft – How to make slimes not spawn randomly

Edit: As of Minecraft 1.5 or so, Slime spawning has changed yet again. Right now, Slimes will only spawn in certain chunks of your map, depending on the map's seed. There are tools online such as this one that let you input your seed, and it will output the chunks of your map that will spawn Slimes.

Slimes spawn within 16 blocks of bedrock, in any light conditions. I think they were removed in the 1.2 Beta, but it is confirmed that they have returned in 1.2_01.

Slimes spawned fairly frequently back in Alpha, but I believe Notch reduced the spawn rates by quite a bit since then. The 1.3 update increased the slime's spawn rate yet again.

Slimes can spawn in any light level, so having your area well-lit will not stop them.

However, just as with other mobs, slimes require an opaque block to spawn on top of. You can stop them from spawning by lining the floor of your area with transparent blocks, such as glass or slabs.

Additionally, the three sizes of slimes require different amounts of room (i.e. non-opaque blocks like air, signs, torches, etc.) for them to spawn:

• Big Slimes: 3x3x3 block area.
• Small Slime: 3x3x2 block area.
• Tiny Slime: 1x1x2 block area (or 1x1x1 if the upper block is not opaque).

So, another solution is to simply fill in the area as much as possible.