- Keep seedlings out of harm’s way – Raise seed trays up on
tables, benches or greenhouse shelves if possible.
- Watch out – If possible, keep an eye out for the presence
of any slugs or snails so that you can take action right away. Check for leaf
damage or slime trails, and check nice cool hiding places nearby, such as under
pots and rocks, and under the rims of containers.
- Raise healthy seedlings and plant them out only when ready
– Harsh weather, dry soil and other factors stress plants, and slugs and snails
can tell when they are becoming weak or sickly…
- Encourage a wide diversity of life in your garden – Frogs,
newts, hedgehogs and even some beetles eat slugs and snails or their eggs! To encourage a diverse ecosystem, keep a
variety of flowering plants to attract lots of insects, add a small pond to
your garden if possible, use no poisons, and let some parts of your garden
remain undisturbed for wildlife to nest or hide.
- Barriers – Copper tape round pots is effective, though
expensive. People also report various levels of success with wool pellets,
scrunched up foil, crushed eggshells, grit, sawdust, sharp sand and other rough/dry/irritating
materials placed around plants.
- Torchlight hunts – Go out there after dark with a torch
and simply remove the culprits. You can reduce numbers dramatically this way,
and quickly too. It is suggested that the most humane way to kill them is to
chop their heads off with sharp scissors, but personally I don’t have the
heart/stomach for that. If you prefer to release them, do so in a wild place ideally
a few hundred metres from your plot – they can find their way back if you just
chuck them down the garden! Or pop them in your council compost bin – or ‘slug
heaven’ as I like to call it…
- Beer traps – Put cheap beer in bowls near where
slugs/snails are active, and they’ll be attracted and drown in it. Be sure to
refresh traps regularly as the smell gets very bad!
- Biological control – Nematodes (microscopic soil-dwelling
worms) which prey on slugs and snails are available to buy and add to your
garden. Search ‘Nemasys’ or ‘Nemaslug’.
- Slug pellets – The toxic metaldehyde pellets are thankfully
now banned but the organic ferric phosphate ones are just as good. They should still be used
sparingly however.
Slugs and snails are a fact of nature, and it’s never
possible to prevent every bit of damage, but combining a few of these methods
will help your veg garden prevail!
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| Image by Capri23auto from Pixabay |