How to Avoid Slugs in the Garden
The first time I planted lettuces, I was delighted when the brilliantly green leaves pushed through the black soil – they looked fabulous, and I was really looking forward to gorgeous salads.
I checked on their progress every day on my patio.
(I’m not a natural gardener, I’ve had to educate myself).
Then one morning I woke up – to disaster.
Something had eaten every last one of them!
I was devastated.
The most likely culprit was slugs or snails. They appear in vast quantities in my garden after it rains.
Artificial Solutions
Of course you can buy chemical solutions which you sprinkle around your plants, to kill slugs and snails. It’s a quick and easy solution.
But I don’t want chemicals in my garden, and especially not around food I’m going to eat.
Natural Solutions
Instead, there are lots of little ways you can stop slugs and snails from eating your garden harvest. Here are 5 methods that are effective:
1. Make a Barrier
Slugs don’t like a bumpy or rough texture as it is difficult for them to crawl on it.
Add any of the following around your vegetables to stop snails and slugs eating your food:
- Crushed egg shells
- Sharp, small pebbles
- Grit (used for feeding chickens)
- Cocoa shells (but don’t use these if you have dogs as they are toxic to them).
2. Add Copper
Slugs hate copper, so place a strip of copper around all sides of your vegetables to make it difficult for them to enter.
3. Trap Them
This is my least favourite method because I don’t like to kill things.
You can purchase pre-made traps at the garden store but it’s cheaper to make your own.
If you have any of those nasty plastic disposable cups, simply cut the bottom of them and put them in your vegetable patch. Or use anything else of a similar shape. Fill these traps with beer. As the slugs crawl up the traps they will fall into the beer and drown.
4. Manual Removal
The tried and tested – though not much fun – method of picking slugs and snails out of your flowers and vegetables does work. The best time to do this is at dusk when they seem to be most active.
I use a small spade / trowel to remove them.
5. Use Nature
Take advantage of Mother Nature and increase the wildlife in your garden. Wild birds love to eat slugs. Put up birdfeeders and food around the garden to attract wild birds which will in turn keep the slug population low.
Personally, I use a mixture of egg shells, manual removal and lots of birds in the garden. But everyone’s circumstances are different, and hopefully at least one of these suggestions will be useful for you and enable you to avoid placing chemicals in your garden – and also hopefully avoid you losing food to snails and slugs.
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Photo Credit: Houzz
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
After the heavy summer rains I can find up to 30 snails in my garden and doing a ‘snail scoop’ or manual removal I find is easiest since I also don’t have neighbours and I can just pop them over the garden wall on to open but heavy vegetation.
Agreed, manual removal works well!
I have started growing some greens in my backyard too, and I also had some horrible experiences with plant-eating pests. I know the easiest way to get rid of them was to use the commercial pesticides but doing that would defeat my purpose of growing my own food, so, like you, I went with natural solutions. I use garlic oil spray for insects and citrus rind traps for the slugs.
Hi Rena, I’m delighted you’re also using natural solutions. Citrus rind is a great solution for slugs – thanks for your comment, and I love your website!