Gardening is one of the favorite hobbies of people these days. Your garden can be a beautiful place where you can relax and breathe fresh air. It can also be a good addition to your home. Meanwhile, encountering slugs and garden snails can be a nuisance. It can also damage your plants.
Don’t worry because, in this article, we will provide you the best ways to get rid of garden pests like garden snails and slugs. Before we proceed, let us first know about slugs and garden snails.
Slugs and Garden Snails
Slugs and snails can damage your garden. These are usually found in humid and temperate climates. Usually, your garden can have more of these pests during the rainy season. Slugs and snails are soft-bodied mollusks and not insects.
They may digest plant tissues like tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, beans, and more. As slugs and snails invade your garden, they can damage your healthy and beautiful plants. That’s why you need to do something to get rid of these garden pests.
Ways of getting rid of slugs and garden snails
Use plants as a natural pesticide
One natural way to get rid of slugs and garden snails is to use plants as a pesticide. With this, you can repel slugs without using harsh chemicals. Use plants that have scents that can repel them. Some of these plants include rosemary, anise, rue, and wormwood. Other slug repellents are cyclamen, ferns, lantana, nasturtium, hydrangea, and California poppy.
Make a slippery barrier
You can also make a slippery barrier outside the plant pots. So, you can scale the slugs and snails and avoid them reaching your container plants.
Sprinkle salt
You can kill slugs and snails by sprinkling salt on them. Meanwhile, avoid sprinkling too much salt since it may affect your plants. Use this method when your plants are far away from slugs.
Put nematodes on the soil
Nematodes are micro-organisms that dwell on the soil. These are parasites for slugs. You can mix nematodes with water and put them on the soil. The temperature of the soil should be excess of 5C to make it more effective.
Use copper tape for Snails
Copper can react to the slime of slugs. Using copper tape can give a tiny electric shock to them as they get in contact with it. You can attach the copper tape on the potted plants, greenhouse staging, raised beds, or anything that you want to protect from slugs and snails.
Create a Beer Trap For Snails or Slugs
Another effective and affordable way to get rid of slugs and garden snails is a beer trap. You can make a half container of beer near defenseless plants.
You can opt for purpose-made beer traps. The beer scent can lure the slugs and make them stuck.
Encourage beneficial wildlife and remove shelter
Slugs and snails may seek out cover under garden furniture, bricks, and big logs. You may also remove shelters to make them expose to natural predators. It is also beneficial to encourage natural predators like hedgehogs, newts, and toads to get rid of them.
Use Slug Or Snail Lures
You can use dried cat food or old lettuce leaves in a shady or damp corner to lure slugs. As they go to the food source, you can scoop them and dispose of them.
Make a prickly barrier
Since slugs and snails are soft-bodied mollusks, you can deter them from your plants by using a prickly and sharp barrier. You can use pine needles, crushed eggshells, or thorny cuttings to make barriers.
It may also recycle unwanted foliage and leftovers. You can also prefer sharp sand.
Catch and release method
Usually, slugs and garden snails hide in a damp spot, so you can put a wet piece of plank or wood to these spots. Then, you can lift them and release them to the wild.
Place used coffee grounds
Slugs don’t like the scent of ground coffee. So, to get rid of them, you can scatter the coffee grounds around the plants. You can also mix it with eggshells if you want. In addition, coffee grounds can also help to decompose and keep healthy plants.
Remove the favorites of the slugs and snails
Slugs lick plants including beans, basil, dahlia, cabbage, hosta, delphinium, marigolds, strawberries, lettuce, and more. So, pay attention to these plants. If you love these plants, make sure to protect them from these pests.
Keep your garden inhospitable
Snails and slugs love to stay in damp and dark areas. One natural way to get rid of them is to keep your garden clean and tidy. So, these pests will not find any comfort in your garden. You can rake your garden and remove debris, leaves, and slug eggs.
There we go, so that is the list of the best methods of getting rid of slugs and garden snails. Now that you have learned how to get rid of these garden pests, it is also a good idea to know how to prevent them.
Slugs and snails prevention
The following are some prevention tips for snails and slugs in your garden.
- Rake your garden early in spring to remove moist debris, which is loved by these pests.
- Natural predators like ducks or chickens can eat these pests and their eggs.
- Practice companion planting to avoid pests.
Conclusion
To sum it up, slugs and garden snails are among the greatest enemies of gardeners like you. They can damage your precious plants. Luckily, there are many ways on how to get rid of them. With the help of this article, we hope you already knew how to protect your garden from slugs and snails.
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