Gardening Guide - Tips For Getting Rid of Snails and Slugs In The Garden

Gardening Guide - Tips For Getting Rid of Snails and Slugs In The Garden
By Ken Miller

So you go to your favorite garden shop and purchase two beautiful pepper plants. It took awhile because you had to sort through all the plants to find the best, most healthy ones. And they were not cheap. Seems like the price goes up every year.

You go home and select that perfect spot in the garden and plant your new peppers. The next morning you wander out to the garden with a cup of coffee to admire your new peppers and to see if they have miraculously grown six inches overnight. Then your heart sinks as you discover your plants are gone. Not just nibbled on by some bug...they are gone.

You have just been victimized by the scourge of the garden. Slugs!

Snails and slugs (I'll just refer to slugs hereon) can completely devour a small plant in one sitting. As well as take huge chunks out of the leaves on larger plants. Perhaps slugs have some benefit to mankind, but I can not think of any. Certainly not in my garden. So, how do we get rid of them?

First, no matter what method you eventually use, you must eliminate all debris from your garden and the surrounding area. Slugs are night creatures and do not like being exposed to the open air or daylight. Therefore, they hide and live under rocks, old wood planks or crass clippings. So, the first step in getting rid of them is to remove all their hiding places. Rocks, wooden boards, grass clippings, that old metal tool that has been in the corner for months...they all must be removed.

Then, choose a method to get rid of them.

There are many. Some of the household remedies are:

Beer in a cup: take any small container that will hold liquid and bury the top of the container even with ground level. Fill with stale beer and wait for them to crawl in and drown. The slugs are attracted to the beer and they will crawl into it. This method works but is not sufficient for even a moderate infestation.

Hand Picking: Very simple. Go out into the garden at daybreak and hand pick the slugs. This method also works but is tedious and time consuming. I still do this today in addition to other methods.

Copper strips: You can purchase copper strips at the garden shop made for this purpose. The idea is that you completely surround your garden with a copper strip barrier and slugs will not cross the copper strip. I have found that, while it is helpful, some slugs apparently do cross the barrier.

Snail Bait: This is what I have found to be most effective. However, conventional snail bait is attractive to dogs (looks like dog food) and it is poisonous to dogs and children. I refuse to put a poisonous chemical around plants in my garden that I intend to eat. However, there is a better product.

Most garden shops and large markets today sell a snail bait that is "pet friendly". It cost a little more but is well worth a dollar or two. It is non-poisonous to pets and people. And... it works.

I have used the pet-friendly snail bait for several years and my garden is 99% snail/slug free. You just apply in the afternoon, surrounding the garden or individual plants you want to protect. Re-apply every couple of days as your watering or the rain washes it away.

Start your treatment in the spring before planting the garden and continue for two weeks. Then you can apply about once a week throughout the growing season and you will not have a slug problem.

I have found one or two slugs survive occasionally and make it into the garden. This is very rare and is why I say my garden is 99% slug free instead of 100%. Therefore, I continue to hand pick as necessary on my normal morning walk through the garden.

I wish I could tell you that there is a cheap, effective home remedy for slugs. Like mixing vinegar, ketchup and water or something like that, but the store bought pet-friendly snail bait has proven to me to be the most effective.

Ken Miller is a free lance writer and webmaster for www.basicgardentips.com where you can find many free how-to articles on gardening. He also has a Southern Food Recipe site at www.olsouthrecipes.com with loads of free recipes.

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