How to Control Garden Slugs and Snails

Slugs and snails are the bane of gardeners worldwide, but especially in damp climates. Nothing is more frustrating than working hard to get your garden going and coming out one morning to see your little seedlings eaten down to a stump.

Slugs are formidable foes. They are nocturnal and can often be difficult to locate during the day. They reproduce asexually and produce two to three dozen eggs several times a year. The slug eggs can hatch in ten days to three weeks and the slugs will reach maturity and start chomping down on your precious garden six weeks after they hatch.

The war against slugs in your garden will be constant and never ending. You won't ever win, but with some effort and perseverance you can do a lot to control the slug population and save your flowers and vegetables.

Eliminate Their Hide-Outs

After a night of garden pillaging, slugs retreat to their shady and damp hide-outs at dawn. Clean up your garden and you will eliminate many slug hiding places. Start by pulling weeds and removing any unwanted plants. Even dried leaves, which make wonderful garden mulch, will become slug havens once they start to compost, so clean them up and get them out of your garden.

Pick up any pieces of wood, flower pots or rocks and get them away from your precious garden plants. Slugs and snails love to hide under garden clutter because it stays damp, dark and cool during the daytime. Make sure your bushes are pruned and dead branches are removed. Keep your garden soil well cultivated. Even a dirt clod could protect a slug or snail during the day.

Kill weeds beneath decks to make them less appealing to slugs and snails. Finally, keep your lawn trimmed because even an overgrown edge could be a slug and snail shelter.

Block Access to Their Food Supply

There are several ways to discourage slugs and snails from approaching your plants in the first place. Cedar chips, placed around your plants will irritate the gelatinous underbellies of slugs and snails and dehydrate them as well. Broken egg shells placed around the base of your plants will also irritate and kill slugs who crawl over them.