How to Get Rid of the Slugs and Snails in Your Garden

Exotic or introduced slugs and snails often cause the most damage.

Slugs and snails are some of the most serious and destructive pests in gardens. They create irregular and unsightly holes in the foliage and fruits with their rasping mouth parts, and drag silvery, slimy trails behind them as they move. They usually come out at night or when weather conditions have been wet, so they may be difficult to detect. You can, however, control their populations with several approaches.

Things You'll Need

• Wood ashes
• Copper foil or other copper barrier products
• Metaldehyde-based snail bait
• Beer
• Aluminum pie plates
• Commercial slug and snail traps
• Iron phosphate bait
• Rubber gloves
• Flashlight
• Bucket
• Soapy water

Instructions

1. Reduce slug and snail populations around your garden by planting ornamentals and edibles in full sunlight, since these mollusks prefer to stay in shady, damp areas. They also gravitate toward moist habitats and take shelter beneath organic trash, loose boards or stones on the ground, so keep your garden area free of debris and weedy plants.

2. Unfortunately, it is not really feasible to remove every place where a slug or snail might hide. They also gather underneath outdoor decks, under ivy or other groundcover plants and beneath shrubbery. You can catch the remaining mollusks by handpicking them. Water an infested area late in the day to encourage slugs and snails to visit, and then go outdoors after dark with a flashlight. Wear rubber gloves, and pick off any mollusks and kill them by dropping them in a bucket of soapy water or by smashing them.

3. Slugs and snails are attracted to the smell of beer. Dig a shallow hole in the ground near an infested area of your garden, and sink an aluminum pie pan in the hole so that the lip is level with the surface of the soil. Fill the pie pan with beer. The mollusks will crawl in and drown. Remove the dead pests regularly, and refill the beer trap every several days. You can also purchase commercial slug and snail traps that contain specialized bait. Snails and slugs enter the traps but are unable to escape.

4. Iron-phosphate baits are harmless to children and pets, but they are deadly to slugs and snails. Irrigate problem areas and sprinkle the substance on the ground. Slugs and snails stop feeding after eating only a small amount, and they soon crawl away to die. You can also use baits that contain a poison called metaldehyde, but this type of bait is both attractive and deadly to household pets, especially dogs, and should not be applied directly to plants.

5. Purchase copper tape, screens or other copper foil products and install them as barriers around plant beds. The copper reacts to the slime and creates an electrical current, giving slugs and snails an electrical shock. Sprinkling wood ashes around susceptible plants also provides a temporary barrier, but this method becomes ineffective if the ashes get wet.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a pen of chickens, geese or ducks in the infested area to reduce slug and snail populations, but keep them away from plants that they might also enjoy eating.

• Encourage the presence of toads and robins in your garden, since they feed on slugs and snails.

• Do not sprinkle slugs and snails with salt to kill them. This adds salinity to the soil and may harm your garden.

References

• University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program; Snails and Slugs; M. L. Flint, et al.; November 2009
• Texas AgriLife Extension; Snails and Slugs; J. A. Jackman; June 2005
• Rutgers Cooperative Research and Extension Fact Sheet: Slugs and Snails in the Vegetable Garden; Gerald M. Ghidiu, Ph.D.; December 1992