Slug Control
Any gardener
who awakens to discover their new plants or seedlings have been chewed
off at the base by slugs, knows that the annual battle for control of
garden slugs has begun for the season. These slimy pests just
love to demolish new vegetables, flowers or anything else you value in
your garden.
Controlling
slugs and snails in your garden is usually a topic of great debate and
interest to gardeners. Take heart though as slugs can be
controlled through a variety of fairly simple protective measures.
Controlling slugs
First of all,
slugs do have
some natural enemies. Frogs and toads, centipedes and black ground
beetles as well as birds all love to eat slugs. Providing a toad
house along with nesting for birds somewhere in your
yard is a great way to encourage these welcome slug predators to your
garden.
Minimize slug hiding spots
Then try to
minimize the places that slugs and snails have to hide during the hot
sunny days. Slugs need shade and moisture so they will hide under
leaves, mulch, boards, tools or anything at all that will provide some
protection for them. Control them by making sure you don’t
leave things laying around in the yard.
Protect individual plants from slugs
The only
guaranteed
protection from slugs and snails is enclosing each flower or vegetable
seedling in its own slug protective cover. These special
plant protectors can be purchased, or just try making one yourself by
placing a plastic half gallon drink container over the top of your
plant.
Simply saw
off the bottom of the container and make sure the edges are pressed
down in the soil so that the slug can’t slide underneath.
These should be taken off during hot days so that you don’t cook your
seedlings!
Controlling slugs with beer (favorite with husbands)
Dig several
shallow dishes or cat food cans into the soil deep enough so that the
rim is just a fraction of an inch higher than the surrounding soil.
Place them about two feet apart surrounding the area of plants you
are trying to protect. Fill up with beer! Any old beer will
do, leftover beer with no fizz is fine.
Overnight,
slugs will be attracted to the beer and slide into the dish for a
drink. They become ‘drunk’ from the beer and drown! The
next morning you can fish out the dead slugs and then top it up again
in the evening. This is the preferred method for most gardeners
as it seems like the most humane (fun, even) way for the slugs to die.
Next best -
Control slugs with a physical barrier
Control
slugs with a physical barrier such as a trench of salt, egg shells,
broken glass or sand. With this method you control slugs by
surrounding your garden with a layer of material, one or two inches
wide, over which the slug
has to pass to reach your vegetables and flowers. Of course they
never make it as they become dehydrated on the salt or cut from the
sharp shells or glass. This seems like a pretty ghastly way to go
compared to the beer method, plus it is more unsightly in the garden.
However some gardeners find this their preferred method of slug
control.
Chemical
products
There are a
variety of chemical pastes and pellets available to control slugs.
These are generally effective but the drawback is that they are highly
attractive to cats, birds and other garden wildlife. You
can purchase special containers designed to protect other wildlife and
place the bait into these. None of these chemical means are any
more effective than the beer or barrier method however, but they can be much
more dangerous to use.
Whichever way
you choose to control slugs, try to remember that slugs do provide
some benefit to your garden. They produce a rich compost-like waste that
benefits your soil, even if that waste is a by-product of your own
prized flowers and vegetables!
To find out
more about slugs and how to control and protect against them, visit
some of the merchants
specializing in garden pest protection that we have reviewed.
