How to Make Your Own Snail Repellent

Snails: Garden pest or escargot? It depends on whom you talk to. Assuming you would prefer to discourage snails from dining on your foliage, but you'd rather not kill them with chemicals or traps, here are some methods for homemade snail repelling that will encourage them to make reservations elsewhere.

Things You'll Need

• Crushed marble, marble dust or seashells
• Wood ash
• Seaweed
• Thin copper sheeting and metal shears

Instructions

1. Crushed marble and marble dust are usually available from stores that sell landscaping supplies. It may also be sold as a fish tank substrate in pet stores. If you live on a coast you can make your own free version; gather a bunch of seashells, place them in a heavy-duty bag, and crush them with a hammer. Sprinkle the crushed marble or shells around tender plants and plant beds. Snails' tender undersides can't take the sharp edges.

2. Wood ashes make good fertilizer for plants, although some, such as azaleas, which like acidic soil, aren't crazy about them. Neither are snails. Surround the plant bed with a low ridge of wood ash and run it down the aisles for row plants.

3. If you have access to seaweed, try mulching around the perimeter of the garden with some. Snails hate the salt. But don't mulch the garden with it--too much salt is dangerous or even deadly for most plants.

4. When snails crawl over copper they get an unpleasant electric shock. Put a strip at least three inches thick around the base of valuable plants or around the trunks of trees that are assailed by snails.

References

• Earl Proulx: "Yankee Magazine's Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs & More"
• Readers' Digest: "Practical Problem Solver"
• The Aquarium Source