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Rainy days bring slugs and snails into gardens. These garden “beasts” can destroy an entire crop. At this time they especially feast on the leaves of cruciferous vegetables and various lettuces, but they won’t spurn potatoes or carrots either; in previous weeks it was strawberries.
The mistake gardeners must not make is collecting snails.
They feed on slug eggs, so they are their closest natural enemies. Another enemy of slugs is especially dryness. Therefore it is good not to water plants in the evening, but rather in the morning and preferably only at the roots. And a truly effective weapon against slugs is wood ash. So if we burn wood in a stove or fireplace, set aside the ash. It can be worth its weight in gold in the garden. For slugs it is a nightmare.
A trap that always works for me
I prepared beer traps for the slugs. I placed bowls filled with beer near the plants (e.g. yogurt cups filled halfway with beer) — beer yeast attracts snails like a magnet. Just set them out and let them do their work — the next day you’ll see the catch. We change the traps every 2 days.
Besides ash, they also hate this
As with aphids, the same applies to slugs: they hate the smell of garlic, so a spray containing it will be very effective in fighting them.
Add four large cloves of garlic to a liter of boiling water, let it boil for 5 minutes and then remove it from the heat. Wait until the liquid cools, then put the solution into a sprayer and apply it to the soil around the plants you want to protect. You’ll see that these creatures will stay far away from the garlic zone.
Against slugs
I no longer buy the blue granules; I want a harvest without chemicals and we all know what nastiness those chemicals contain.
When I planted tomato seedlings in the spring, slugs started eating them and my neighbor advised me:
- Regular ground coffee beans
- I scattered it around the tomatoes and not a single snail touched them.
Other methods
- Sprinkle coarse salt mixed with cigarette ash around the plants. Both ingredients will prevent slugs from approaching the crop.
- Crushed eggshells mixed with coffee also help. It’s also a fertilizer and works against ants.
- Pour pudding powder into a tetrapak container, lay it on its side so water can’t get in; it will attract them and they’ll suffocate.
- Oat flakes worked for me — scatter them around the bed and plants; after swelling in the snail’s digestive system they kill it.
- Pour coffee over ordinary sawdust and spread it around the plants; coffee acts like a strong poison.
- Ducks, for example Indian Runners. We have them and we absolutely don’t have snails!
- My father-in-law buries PET bottles with a little dark beer; he says it attracts them and then they luxuriate in the beer bath.
- The only thing that helps catch snails are traps made from a plastic bottle. Cut it in half, bury it in the ground level and pour beer into it. A snail will fall in and drown. Then when there are many, pour them out.
- Cornmeal with baking soda — sprinkle it.
