For many gardeners, slugs are a real nightmare. They can cause significant damage to your plants and crops. Not only do they persistently eat leaves, flowers and fruits in spring and summer, but with the onset of cold weather, these land molluscs move to the cellar and continue to destroy your harvest there.
And even that’s not all! Even after the slug has visited the fruit, its mucus continues its destructive effect. Because of it, the upper protective layer of the fruit is corroded and disappears, and it begins to spoil and disappear.
Mostly, snails come out at night, so you may have no idea how many are in your garden. That is why the fight against them is most effective with the onset of darkness. We have selected for you the 10 best, in our opinion, ways to deal with these uninvited guests in your garden.
1. Water the plants in the morning, not in the evening
Slugs are very attracted to wet places, so the first step to not attracting them to your garden is to choose morning watering instead of evening watering.
2. Reduce the number of places that are potentially attractive to slugs
Weed your area regularly, as slugs like to hide in the cool shade of weeds. Also, in order not to create cozy corners for them to live in, at the beginning of spring, clean the garden and vegetable garden, rake old leaves, loosen the soil, because even large lumps can become a shelter for these slippery pests. Leave enough space between plants for good air circulation.
3. Attract natural enemies of slugs to your garden
If you have ducks, geese or chickens, they will help you fight these pests. If not, you can make bird feeders so that they settle in your garden.
4. Catch slugs in “comfortable” places
If you are the kind of person who wouldn’t hurt a fly, and even more so you don’t want to destroy a snail, you can catch them and take them away from your plot. And collecting them in one place is quite simple. As already mentioned, slugs like to hide in dark, moist places, so you can leave a wet board or log overnight near the place where slugs are actively eating your crops.
For bait, you can put something that snails especially like, for example, cabbage leaves or peels from citrus fruits. After destroying your plants, these voracious creatures will decide to rest and gather in your proposed “hotel”.
5. Salt against slugs
Salting slugs is an age-old and particularly cruel method of killing slugs. It also requires a lot of effort. Probably suitable for those who are so tired of the damage done by them that they want real revenge.
It is necessary to go out into the garden or vegetable garden at night with a flashlight and a salt shaker. As a guide, look for plants with distinctively eaten leaves. Look for slugs near them, shake them off the leaves and sprinkle them with salt. The salt draws the water out of the slugs, and they slowly die.
6. We attract slugs with drinks
Here in one, we have combined several options for catching slugs: for beer, compote or milk – whatever you prefer or what you have at home. More suitable for small areas. This is a fairly loyal method of combating omnivorous slugs, and quite simple. All you need is to simply leave a flat plate with beer, milk or compote in the garden or vegetable garden where you have a problem with slugs. Instead of a flat bowl, we can take a disposable glass and bury it in the ground, leaving the edge 0.5-3 cm above the ground.
The next morning you find a plate or a glass of dead slugs. You can also lure slugs with the following mixture: boil honey, yeast and a little water until the liquid becomes viscous.
7. Grapefruit halves are an effective bait for slugs
After you eat a grapefruit, take halves of the skin and leave them near plants that attract slugs. In the morning, you will find whole groups of slugs in them.
8. Melon against slugs
This is another easy method to try when you have melon at home. After eating this juicy fruit, place the skin in the garden and leave it overnight. In the morning, the inside of the skin will be covered with slugs, which you can destroy at your leisure…
9. Plant plants that repel slugs
Snails do not like pronounced aromas. Therefore, you can plant plants in the garden that repel these pests with their smell: lavender, sage, rosemary, garlic, onions, mint, and others.
10. Infusion of mustard or garlic
Another effective way to fight slugs is to spray plants with mustard infusion. You need to take 50 g of dry mustard, dilute it in water (300 ml), let it infuse. After that, add more water (so that there is 1 liter of liquid) and spray the plants with the resulting infusion in the evening after sunset.
As an alternative to mustard, you can use garlic infusion. We crush a few cloves, throw them in water, insist for a whole day. Add water to a volume of 1 liter and spray the plants.
Read more: Seed sowing calendar for January 2023: favorable and unfavorable days.
