How to Get Rid of Snails Naturally

Keep snails out of your garden.

Snails are a common garden pest, and anyone who cares about the health of their plants likely wants these intruders to stay as far away as possible. Unfortunately, commercial snail baits are often toxic and can release poison into the soil of your garden, endangering your plants, children and pets. A safer alternative is to use any of the variety of natural repellents that will work to keep snails away from your garden with no adverse effects on anything else in the environment.

Things You'll Need

• Human or pet hair
• Egg shells
• Salt
• Coffee grounds
• Spray bottle
• Water
• Beer
• Pie pan

Instructions

1. 

   Snails do not like to cross over hair.

   Spread hair over the soil of your garden. Either human or animal hair can be used for this purpose, so if you'd rather not use your own hair you can give your dog a thorough brushing. Snails dislike the texture of hair and will be reluctant to cross a patch of it to get to your plants. Hair tends to lose its effectiveness once it becomes wet, however, so you may have to replace it frequently.

2. 

   Egg shells work great at keeping snails out of your garden.

   Crush egg shells and spread them around your plants or, better yet, all the way around the entire garden if you have enough. Just like hair, snails do not like the feeling of going over jagged egg shells and will avoid doing so. Mixing egg shells and hair together is particularly effective since egg shells are not affected by rain.

3. Sprinkle a thick line of salt around the perimeter of your garden. Snails as well as slugs absolutely refuse to cross a barrier made of salt, so this will work well at keeping them away from your plants. You will likely need to reapply the salt often because it is very susceptible to rain and wind.

4. Give the snails a dose of caffeine, which is deadly to them but not to your plants. Mix 10 parts water with 1 part coffee grounds in a clean spray bottle. Spray this mixture over the leaves of your plants and the soil around them, shaking the bottle often as you spray to prevent the coffee from sinking to the bottom of the container.

5. Set beer traps, which work well in both wet and dry weather. Dig a shallow hole in the ground near your garden and place a container such as a pie pan in the hole so the top rim of the pan is level with the surface of the ground. Fill the container with any kind of beer you have around the house and leave it there overnight. Snails will drink the beer, become intoxicated and fall into the pan, rendering them unable to bother your garden.

References

• "G Magazine"; Getting Rid of Snails; Sara Phillips; July 2008
• Sustainable Gardening Tips: Weird and Wonderful Ways to Naturally Control Garden Snails and Slugs