How to Organically Get Rid of Slugs and Snails

Prevent slugs and snails without cehmicals or poisons.

Snails and slugs are common garden pests that enjoy eating the leaves of plants like hostas, lettuce and delphinium. They can kill young seedlings by eating them right down to the ground. Chemical poisons may not be the best solution so consider making traps and organic sprays. Keeping the garden clean also helps. Slugs and snails love cool damp areas best time to hunt is rainy days, mornings or evenings.

Instructions

1. Make traps disguised as hiding places. Turn a clay pot over in the garden bed and wait for the snails and slugs to arrive. When you find them, pick them off and throw them away or kill them.

2. Make a barrier that slugs can or will not cross. Cedar mulch, crushed egg shells and cedar mulch had been known to repel snails. They will not be able to crawl over these things so put a ring of one of these materials no more than one inch deep around the affected plants.

3. Cultivate or dig around in the garden bed in early spring. Disturbing the soil helps to kill any slug or snail larvae.

4. Look in typical hiding places. Snails and slugs like to hide under boards, rocks and other dark damp places. Remove these places if you are not using them for slug traps.

5. Keep your lawn trimmed. Tall grass is a haven for slugs and snails.

6. Clean the garden. Remove any dead leaves or fallen branches and anything that can decay and provide food for snails and slugs.

7. Spray snails with a mixture of equal parts ammonia and water. The ammonia will not hurt plants and will later convert to nitrogen.

Resources

• Get rid of the slugs and snails in your garden
• Controlling the slugs and snails in your garden