How to Get Rid of Snails or Slugs in Your Flower Bed
Slugs and snails can harm your flower bed. The slimy pests will eat your flowers and they will dig small holes in the flower bed to lay eggs. You can remove them from your garden to prevent them from ruining the flowers and soil. While you can resort to commercial products to remove the snails and slugs, a nontoxic method will save you money and protect the environment from chemicals. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Flashlight
- Gloves
- Container
- Beer or soapy water
- Small glass jars
- Shovel
- Inorganic mulch
- Eggshells
- Table salt
Instructions
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Look through the flower garden at night with a flashlight. Wear gloves and pick the snails and slugs out of the garden. Place them in a container filled with beer or soapy water.
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2
Remove any hiding places for the snails and slugs. Remove dropped leaves, dead foliage, weeds and other debris from the garden.
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3
Fill small glass jars with beer. Dig small holes that have the same dimensions of the jars around the bed of your garden. Spread the jars at least 1 foot apart. Place the jars in the holes at an angle so that the lip of the jar sits level with the surface of soil. The slugs will climb inside, but they will not be able to get out of the jars.
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4
Replace your organic mulch with inorganic mulch such as pebbles or gravel. This will keep the snails away because they prefer to live in organic mulches, like bark and pine needles.
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5
Crush eggshells and sprinkle them in the garden. The eggshells will prevent the snails and slugs from crawling around.
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6
Sprinkle table salt over the slug or snail carefully so that you do not add too much salt to your garden bed. The salt will immediately kill the snail or slug.
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Tips & Warnings
Purchase a copper flashing barrier kit at your home and garden store to prevent the snails from entering your garden.
References
- University of Illinois Extension: The Green Line: Bug Bites: Slugs in the Hosta
- The Garden Helper: Slugs and Snails, Controlling Them in the Garden
- Green Living Tips: Controlling Snails and Slugs
- Washington State University: The Top 10 Most Unwanted Pests: Slug
- University of California: Snails and Slugs Management Guidelines
- Colorado State University Extension: Slugs
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
