Slugs and snails are one of the most common issues gardeners encounter. The devastation these creatures can inflict is enough to make even seasoned gardeners lose their collective minds. To help you deal with them, I thought I'd share some tried-and-true advice as well as some less well-known ones. You won't get rid of them all, but at least you can keep them under control in some way!
Although not all of them will work for you—a lot depends on how severe the issue is where you live—it is definitely worth trying some, if not all of them.
Barriers:
Slugs, on the other hand, live underground and are able to circumvent barriers, so these methods will be more successful against snails.
You can use barriers like crushed eggshells, grit, bran, wood ash or soot around plants on your garden borders. The idea is that slugs and snails won't cross these things, so they'll go somewhere else to look for their next meal. Make sure you write everything down completely.
Slugs love oat bran, so sprinkle it all over your plants. If they eat too much, though, the plants will grow and die.
The same deterrent effect can be seen when thick layers of petroleum jelly are applied to the rims of pots.
Copper tape with an adhesive backing is available, and you can stick it around the sides of the pot to give the snail a small electric shock as it tries to cross.
Traps:
Beer traps are a great way to get rid of slugs and snails and can be purchased at a garden center. Place the cheap beer-filled trap in a hole with the top level of the soil. You can also use old fruit juice or even milk almost everywhere. Alternately, you can make your own by cutting off approximately three to four inches from the base of a plastic drink bottle.
Cut a small hole in the half grapefruit and place the skin upside down on the soil after eating it. It attracts slugs who will congregate inside each day so that you can remove them.
When the slugs and snails start to get active in the late evening, gather all of them and put them in a bucket of heavily salted water to drown. They will simply swim to the surface and crawl out in plain water, so it won't work. Or, if you know where they hide, you can find them during the day by looking under bricks or logs, under shrubs, or in any damp, dark area.
What should you do with the slugs you've gathered? Because there is a lot of food for live slugs and snails to eat in your compost heap, they will probably stay there. You can also put the dead ones in there, including the beer in the beer traps; however, you must first remove the dead snails and slugs from the salty water.
Predators:
Nematodes, which are microscopic parasites that kill slugs both above and below ground, can be used as a biological control. Simply mix the powder with water and spray it onto the soil with a watering can, which can be purchased from organic garden suppliers. This might work for about six weeks.
Adopt some chickens or ducks if you're lucky enough to have the space; they love slugs and will give you free eggs in return.
In order to attract the slug and snail's natural predators, make your garden wildlife-friendly. Build a pond to attract toads and frogs; eliminate hedgehog food; and set up feeders for birds. While this won't solve the issue right away, it will, over time, result in a healthier garden with fewer pests.
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