Slugs and snails are the least kind of visitors you want in your garden. These pesky critters can finish up your vegetable and flower garden in a week’s time. Read on to know the best Slug Prevention tips and put an end to your doubts on How to Prevent Slugs and Snails in the Garden!
Here’s all you need to know on how to eliminate aphids from your garden
What Attracts Slugs & Snails to Your Garden?
1. Wet Soil
Slugs and snails are slimy creatures that are attracted to damp and wet soil. Your garden is likely to be infested with slugs if you overwater the soil or if it gets low sunlight.
2. Nutrient-Rich Soil and Leafy Plants
Slugs loiter around in search of food and settle near veggies and flowers. They feed on plants like lettuce, basil, hostas, and marigold.
3. Fungus
Slugs and snails feed on decaying matter and are therefore attracted by fungus. Keep a check on the fungus outburst in your garden to bar away these critters.
4. Wet Wooden Logs and Stones
As slugs seek shelter on the go, wet wood logs or the shade of large stones become their hanging-out spot. The moisture in such surfaces attracts them, where they settle in the gaps and the shade of the rocks.
5. Overgrown Grass
Slugs prefer long, overgrown grasses so that they can cling to the lower surfaces and get some relief from the hot dry grounds. Also, dense grassy regions have more moisture content as compared to the barren lands during the dry seasons.
How to Prevent Slugs and Snails in the Garden?
1. Keep Your Garden Clean
Clean the garden edgings, hedges, and flower beds so that the snails can not seek shelter there. Remove fallen fruit and other appealing organic stuff they love.
A poorly managed compost, leaves, or grass can also give them food, shelter, and a favorable environment for laying eggs.
2. Combat Slugs Early
Start to kill them off early in the growing season, i.e in the spring. You will be able to control their population effectively this way.
3. Water in the Morning
Water in the morning instead of the evening. Slugs and Snails are nocturnal beings and are favored by humid nights. They love moisture and when you water in the evening, it creates favorable conditions for them to thrive in.
4. Hunt them in the Evening or Early Morning
Slugs and snails are active at night or when it is slightly dark. Hence it is the best time to pick and throw them away. It is labor-intensive, but effective if performed regularly for several weeks.
Slug Prevention Tips
Make a beer trap. Dig a hole and set down a bowl of beer or an open bottle of beer to lure slugs. They will get attracted by the smell and then drown in the liquid and die.
Use salt to kill slugs, sprinkle. It draws the water out of their soft bodies.
Use lime and sawdust as a barrier around the plants you want to protect, you can also use eggshells. This prevents the slugs from reaching your plants.
Coffee grounds and mashed rhubarb are also useful to deter them.
Grind horse chestnuts and lay around the plants. It keeps the slugs and snails at bay.
One of the easiest ways to prevent slugs is to get a duck! It loves to eat them with a good appetite. Another advantage of having ducks is that they fertilize the garden efficiently.
Delia
October 11, 2016 At 4:36 pm
Verry good ideas.
Reply
Dee
March 4, 2017 At 2:44 am
We live in Southwest Colorado, elevation being 7,000 ft. The slugs survive through the winter snow! We have lots of pine trees. It’s a never-ending battle to keep up with raking the needles. The slugs like to hide under them. To try to pick them up with tweezers, etc. would be impossible. Any other ideas for the armies of slugs that never die off, would be gladly welcomed!
Reply
Kate
April 15, 2017 At 9:18 pm
I took ash from my wood stove last year and spread it around the garden edges. I hated that I would bring home a new plant and it would be demolished by morning. I heard of this idea and it really worked. I also put down crushed egg shells. If I see them still around I get my salt shaker.
A few years back we lived by a treed area and it was a constant battle, one night armed with salt shakers the grand kids and I went hunting. with in two hours we eliminated over 500 of them. Unbelievable, but it saved most of my strawberries that year. Good luck.
Reply
Abdul
April 5, 2017 At 3:23 am
Dee i have found (by accident) that if you sprinkle “Miracle Grow” Plant food (the blue crystals) it kills them instantly….soooo next time buy a big economy box of “Miracle Grow” -do not dilute into water just sprinkle around the plants and walk away —oh yeah your plants will thank you as well—Win/Win!
Finally the Miracle Grow is actually cheaper than the basic snail/slug killer sold in stores
Reply
Abby
May 14, 2021 At 5:02 pm
I also like to wind copper tape around my pots and raised beds. Apparently its really uncomfortable for them, so they don’t like crossing it. You have to make the line broad, but seems to be working well so far
Reply
Verry good ideas.
- Kate
- April 15, 2017 At 9:18 pm
- I took ash from my wood stove last year and spread it around the garden edges. I hated that I would bring home a new plant and it would be demolished by morning. I heard of this idea and it really worked. I also put down crushed egg shells. If I see them still around I get my salt shaker.
- A few years back we lived by a treed area and it was a constant battle, one night armed with salt shakers the grand kids and I went hunting. with in two hours we eliminated over 500 of them. Unbelievable, but it saved most of my strawberries that year. Good luck.
- Reply
We live in Southwest Colorado, elevation being 7,000 ft. The slugs survive through the winter snow! We have lots of pine trees. It’s a never-ending battle to keep up with raking the needles. The slugs like to hide under them. To try to pick them up with tweezers, etc. would be impossible. Any other ideas for the armies of slugs that never die off, would be gladly welcomed!
I took ash from my wood stove last year and spread it around the garden edges. I hated that I would bring home a new plant and it would be demolished by morning. I heard of this idea and it really worked. I also put down crushed egg shells. If I see them still around I get my salt shaker. A few years back we lived by a treed area and it was a constant battle, one night armed with salt shakers the grand kids and I went hunting. with in two hours we eliminated over 500 of them. Unbelievable, but it saved most of my strawberries that year. Good luck.
Dee i have found (by accident) that if you sprinkle “Miracle Grow” Plant food (the blue crystals) it kills them instantly….soooo next time buy a big economy box of “Miracle Grow” -do not dilute into water just sprinkle around the plants and walk away —oh yeah your plants will thank you as well—Win/Win! Finally the Miracle Grow is actually cheaper than the basic snail/slug killer sold in stores
I also like to wind copper tape around my pots and raised beds. Apparently its really uncomfortable for them, so they don’t like crossing it. You have to make the line broad, but seems to be working well so far
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