Keeping Snails and Slugs Out of Your Garden
I’ve never had much problem with slugs and snails, until this guy showed up literally on my door step last night. At first I thought that some of the stray cats that frequent our porch had left me a smelly present, but then I realized it was a giant slug! And he was crawling strait toward my container garden! My first instinct was to kill him, since a slug so big would probably finish off my plants in one night. But it was just so darn cool looking, that I couldn’t bring my self to kill him out right. I ended up throwing him in the grass away from my plants and set out slug traps and repellants. If he wanders into a trap, then I can’t be held responsible right? I’m a big supporter of natural repellants, and avoid using chemicals if at all possible, so here are some natural ways to rid your garden of the slimy little buggers.
- Pulling up weeds promptly and keeping your garden clear of fallen leaves and debris will go a long way to keep snails and slugs in check, since they hide there during the day.
- Hand picking slugs and snails at night can be effective if done regularly, and is some what satisfying. It’s best to do this after 10pm when they start coming out in full force to feed. Just throw them in a bowl of soapy water with salt and then throw them away when they die.
- Set up barriers around your garden. There are a few choices when using natural, plant safe snail and slug barriers. You can place strips of copper along bed linings or around pots, since their skin reacts badly with the copper. Garden centers usually sell copper tape for this purpose. Sawdust or gravel around your plants will dehydrate slugs and snails. Putting mint or sage in your mulch does a good job at repelling them. I’ve also heard, but never tried, that dried crushed up egg shells are a good plant barrier, and add nutrients to the soil. But keep in mind that barriers will only repel snails, and they may end up going after your neighbors garden!
- Put up a bird feeder. Birds love snails and slugs, so the more birds you have around, the less likely it is you’ll have a slug problem.
- Almost everyone has heard of using stale beer to attract and drown snails and slugs, but if you don’t drink like me, then it would be kind of silly to go buy a case of beer just to kill them. Plus you’d have to wait around for it to go stale. If you don’t normally have beer around or a way to get beer, a very effective alternative is boiling some yeast and honey in water. Bury a dish up to the rim in your garden and fill it with this mixture or with stale beer. You’d be amazed at how well this works. They glide right in and drown themselves. I’ve also heard old grape juice works well, and that non-alcoholic beer works better if you use beer.
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18 opinions for Keeping Snails and Slugs Out of Your Garden
marye
Aug 22, 2007 at 10:34 am
First, the slugs are more than welcome to go after my neighbors garden..or their dogs..especially the dogs.
Second Diatamaceous Earth is not only a barrier but it will kill the slugs by dehydration.
Third..you could not pay me to put one that big on my hand. I bow to you. :)
gw
Aug 22, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Those giant leopard slugs are cool, aren’t they? But, oh, how I hate the slimy trails they leave on one’s fingers. Yuck! Pthbt!
Rebecca
Aug 24, 2007 at 8:38 am
I had never seen the giant slugs before! I got all excited and called my hubby out to see it. Of course he’s lived in Ohio most of his life and this whale of a slug is nothing new around here. So my enthusiasm was lost on him. Growing up further south, our snails and slugs never got that big.
Rebecca Lehman
Aug 30, 2007 at 3:06 am
Hmm. . . dog eaten by giant slug. Now there’s a head line! And it’s not that gross, adds moisture! LOL
ola azeez
Sep 29, 2007 at 6:58 am
wow. what a creature, i have never seen such an animal in my life ,so small and eating up a dog
karen
Dec 30, 2007 at 1:43 am
lived here for 16 years and now, in December, we’ve had a few on our back patio..does anyone know why they would be showing up now?
Pat
Jan 30, 2008 at 4:27 am
I have them bigger than that here in New Castle Delaware! I swear one hot summer night I saw one climbing on the side of my house and it was about 1 foot long! It was dark and I shined my flashlight on it and indeed it was a slug or could have been a tomato worm whatever it was it was slimy and had horns!!!!!! I’m laying out bowls of beer for those nasty suckers this summer!
JOHN GREEN
Jun 14, 2009 at 2:32 am
we live in sacramento ,ca we have sluggs everywere. we luckily also have alot of birds that nest in are trees and all around the tile roof of our house ,we see the birds snatch them up.
Allan
Jun 14, 2009 at 5:32 am
I live in North East Texas and slugs are a “BIG” problem nearly all year long. At first I tried all of the tricks like stale beer, but I had so many it was a fruitless endevor!
SALT, is the answer! I have grown so tired of these useless slimey creatures that I decided to kill the rascals out of revenge. So, I started “hunting ” them down every night for a week and poreing good old cheap table salt on them. THEY MELT! After only one week of my nightly hunting trip on the patio I lost count at 1,135 of these pests! I have now thinned them out to a manageble amount and I must admit I did receive a lot of pleasure on my “hunting” escapades!
I am not a hunter normally and couldn’t kill anything before, but this has been a great past time!
By the way, it’s stated here that birds eat them, well I have a giant bird feeder on my patio and this is what the slimey devils were after and the birds would have nothing to do with them.
So, the wrath of an all out war had to be brought upon these creatures! Everything on the patio had slimey slug tracks on it everyday and the BBQ Grill would also get filled with them. YUCK!
So, happy hunting to all who wish to bring the wrath of table salt on these things! Just remember you must be vigilant or they will literally take over your garden and patio if left to their own devices! But remember, to use the salt ONLY on the patio to protect your plants and sanity as salt will kill your favorite plants as well!
MJ
Jun 14, 2009 at 5:33 am
Salt will also kill the slugs. At one point they were invading our backporch. Nasty mess makers. I created a barrier with salt and it took care of the problem.
Benjamin
Jun 14, 2009 at 8:35 am
I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my patio chairs whenever I saw mosquitoes and guess what ? That worked as well, it worked at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food on the table, the children’s swing area and the standing water nearby. During the summer, I don’t leave home without it……Pass it on =>
I tried this on my deck and around all of my doors. It works - in fact, it killed them instantly. I bought my bottle from Target and it cost me $2.89. It really doesn’t take much, and it is a big bottle too ! It is not as expensive to use as the Can of Bug-spray you buy plus you don’t have that smell of Deet on your body. So, try this it even will last a couple of days. Don’t spray directly on a wood door (like your front door), but spray around the screens frame. Spray around the window screens, and even inside the dog house.
Also another friend commented that they use it for Dandruff Control and if you don’t believe that, read the label on the Original Brand ( non-flavored
Rebecca
Jun 28, 2009 at 3:43 am
I had never seen a slug until I was in Seattle in 1961. I thought they looked like aliens and my cousin there killed them with salt. Ten plus years later, slugs had shown up in my home town in Missouri. They seemed to be prevalent in cycles and one year were so concentrated, it was hard to believe. So, I set out the beer. I did not know that it was suppose to be stale. Anyway, the slugs loved it, must have partied hard and I can only guess that they got so drunk, a few fell into the beer and drowned. A few years later, I had enough of them and took an aggressive approach using salt each time I saw one. Though I had to flush their “remains” off the sidewalk, they have not come back for many years, at least in the high numbers they were.
jeffery Cory
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:39 am
i started a compost pile in my yard once. the only thing i had was carrot shavings the first day, next morning every snail from the yard was on that pile of shavings just waiting for me to do as i would with them.
jane
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:32 am
use salt around your garden they will sizzle until they fad away. pretty ugly sight but works…. jane
Karen
Jun 28, 2009 at 11:40 am
When I was a kid, we had tons of toads and few slugs and snails as the toads ate them. However, now the tide has turned and we have a few huge toads and loads of small slugs. I’m trying to make my garden more hospitable to toads and frogs. We have so many slugs, I bought a case of the cheapest beer I could find and put it out in empty cat food cans. I got rid of quite a few, but it’s been so hot, the beer evaporates in one day. The only thing they seem to eat in my garden is marigolds and scarlet sage. I’m assuming the sage they say will repell them is the regular cooking sage. I may try that.
alex
Jun 29, 2009 at 1:12 am
HELLO!! the most effevtive way of dealing with slugs is this:- 1 pkt of sea salt (50cents maybe) & place in the gallon pail 1 gallon of water & allow to soak overnight.
Pour into the watering can (or make ur own by making holes in a discaded can of peaches base) & just fill it up & run it over the garden all around the floor bed of the plants.
Do not pour over the plants if the salt water is TOO SALTY (u can dilute it a bit more but not too much, taste it & just as long as it is saltier than normal taste is good enough). This should do the job of keeping them away for months & U can repeat it again after 3 months.
It is good all around drains bcoz they love to be in wet & damp areas & will cross the path to go where your plants are so along the walkway is very effective.
CREEPY INSECTS & ANTS : Store the soapy water from the washing machine, take this & wash all over the pavements at backyards & u wil not have any insects & ants problems
Damayanthi Iddawela
Jun 29, 2009 at 2:02 am
The information there in was very useful. I was not awear that stale beer or honey remady is effective. Snails some some about 4-5″ are a major problem.I hope to try out my self.
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