Slugs and Snails
With huge amounts of anticipation, I wait and wait and wait every year for Melbourne Cup day and the ‘promise’ that the frosts are over for another year.
Then in my freshly improved veg beds I plant out my slightly advanced (which I planted seeds in September in my hothouse) tomatoes, zucchini, basil, cucumbers and any other treasures I deem growable or exciting.
If you are not prepared, you will return to examine your pride and joy the next day, only to find them all devoured by snails, slugs and Slater beetles or anything that feels hungry as they stroll past the new yummy plants.
It’s devastating when all that work and anticipation wipes out your vegetable seedlings in one munch. Slugs and snails are insidious – sometimes hard to find they remain one of gardeners worst enemies and are able to consume several times their own body weight of your favourite plants in one sitting.
Salt was used many years ago and was a wonderful deterrent around your treasured plants but it dissolves quickly and can cause potential harm to your soil and other wildlife. If you live near the coast you can use seaweed which will provide an effective barrier around the garden.
Wood ash works for a while but like many natural treatments it works in some gardens and not others. Other folk swear by grit or eggs shells and some slugs and snails hate it while other slide intrepidly across without a glance back.
Traditional slug pellets while they work really well and depending on your infestation or your determination to go natural can contain metaldehyde which can be harmful to wildlife. Birds, frogs and other animals are unlikely to eat the pellets but may eat the slug or snail corpse.
In the perfect garden the ideal method of natural control of slugs and snails is to encourage natural predators into your garden, frogs and birds. And this method really only works as long as the control you use doesn’t cause harm to them.
A few methods that have a high rate of success:
*Coffee grounds – spread around plants to deter slugs and snails and good for the soil as well.
*Beer trap – slugs and snails love beer and small tub in your garden attracts them, they get drunk fall in and drown. My problem is my dogs love beer as well, so this solution does not work in my garden
*Egg shells and sea shells – these can work for a while and create a barrier around your plants temporarily as least.
*Diatomaceous earth – finely ground fossil remains of freshwater prehistoric diatoms – is an abrasive powder – slugs can’t cross it – may be worth a go.
*Copper tape – is a great barrier as slugs and snails cannot cross it. Using a ring around individual plants will prevent them from getting to plants.
*Slug and snail repellent plants such as garlic, chamomile and chives can work to some degree, but I have leak (a relative of garlic) infested with snails.
*Wool waste products – shoddy is a by product of the wool manufacturing process – turned into pellets that you can spread around the plants as a barrier. When they swell, they release little wool fibres that are an irritant to slugs and snails. The pellets degrade over time and become an organic matter in the soil and become plant food.
*Nematodes – are a biological control and is effective in small gardens and best used early in the season and is simple to apply. Simply add to a watering can and water on the solution around the soil. Nematodes penetrate the slug and snails, infect it and kill it
*Wheat bran or Corn bran – small poles or rings of bran are eaten by the slugs and snails and it kills them. This method is used a lot with success but you need to replenish a lot but it is easy to buy from your local store.
*Organic slug pellets – are iron phosphate rather than metaldehyde – these are approved for organic gardening – you don’t need much so use sparingly. There is some evidence to them killing earth worms and reports of dogs becoming unwell after ingestion – so keep the dogs away like you would with all other treatments.
If you are really keen to work without chemicals I recommend giving everything (one at a time) a go and hopefully you will find one that works otherwise use the tried and true pellets, eliminate as many of them as possible so that the numbers are more manageable and you can at least squash them when they are out and about.
