Though small, slugs and snails can be a real headache in the garden, riddling your favorite plants with holes overnight. Frustrating, right?
Before rushing for snail pellets or ammonia solution, try more humane, chemical-free methods to deal with these mollusks. After all, disturbing your gardenās ecosystem is the last thing you want to do.
Sidetrack them with other food
While it may seem unreasonable, offering snails and slugs an alternative snack is a good move to keep your precious greens intact. Sliced cucumber, moist white bread, or soaked oatmeal make excellent bait. A more budget-friendly option is to pluck weeds and spread them near the at-risk plants.
Put out DIY traps
Scouring your garden for these pesky slimers can be time-consuming; trapping them is way easier. To pull it off, you can use old roof tiles, wooden boards, terracotta pots, or flat stones. Make sure to put them in a cool, damp, and shaded area and scatter some plant bits nearby.
Check the traps regularly, preferably in the late afternoon or early evening (snails and slugs only get active at night). Once you spot these critters, pick them up and relocate them as far as possible from your garden.
Set up slug barriers
Slug barriers are an effective way to fend off an infestation. You have a few options hereāmetal or plastic fences and protective plant covers, such as slug collars and rings. The latter are meant for individual plants, particularly young ones, and are used until they grow tall and strong enough. Fences, in their turn, are set up around entire beds to stop crawling invaders.
Metal fences, as well as their plastic counterparts, are designed with a bent edge. When encountering an angle, slugs and snails get disoriented, stop, and turn back. They arenāt keen on crossing the barriers upside down and challenging gravity.
š Tip: When installing a fence, ensure there are no gaps and that no plant parts extend over the barrier. Otherwise, the pests may easily bypass the obstacle.
Maintain a shipshape garden
As simple as it sounds, mowing the grass regularly will minimize potential hideouts for these small pests and make it easier to spot them. Itās also a smart move to tidy up dead leaves and plant debris, especially in fall when slugs and snails are busy laying eggs.
To create an even less inviting area, you should space out and prune your plants. This will help the soil dry out faster and discourage slimy critters from crawling around, as theyāre more drawn to damp environments.
Use water-efficient irrigation systems
Watering your plants from above? Slugs and snails will greatly appreciate it. With this approach, water pools on the leaves and the soil stays wet longerāideal conditions for these moisture-loving pests.
Instead, try switching to a soaker hose or a drip irrigation system. Both techniques ensure that water is delivered straight to the roots while the foliage remains dry.
Timing is crucial as well. Aim to give your plants a drink early in the morning so the soil dries out by eveningāprime time when slugs and snails are at their busiest.
š Tip: To deter slugs and snails, consider keeping your garden on the drier side. You can do so by planting drought-tolerant plants like catmint, lavender, or sage.
While you may treat slugs and snails as garden foes, theyāre actually good to have around. These mollusks help decompose plant waste and serve as food for birds, insects, toads, and hedgehogs. But if you want to keep their numbers down, follow our tips to do this ethically and organically.