Snails & Slugs
Prevention
 Snails and slugs are attracted by moisture, so don't overwater. Cedar mulch is a good natural repellent. By creating a healthy and appropriate environment, you can attract those predators that control snails and slugs:
- Maintain permanent stands of clover and mulches to attract ground beetles and rove beetles; they eat slugs.
- Centipedes eat slug eggs.
- Other predators include small mammals, snakes, toads, lizards, and birds. Ducks are very useful (and they don't harm garden plants).
- The biggest enemy to snails and slugs is the larvae of the lightening bug. Let's bring back the fireflies!
See Habitat.
Hands-on Approach
- For the occasional few, pick off and toss somewhere.
- For a large infestation, have some friends over with flashlights for a nighttime snail and slug hunt! Pick them off and toss them in a bucket of soapy water. Provide surgical-type gloves for the squeamish.
- Grapefruit or melon halves, turned upside down, make effective traps for slugs and snails. Collect them in the morning and remove from your garden.
- Try putting a pie tin with a half-inch of beer outside.
Note: Each year that non-poisonous methods are used, there will be fewer snail and slug problems. Natural predators will proliferate and damage from snails and slugs will dwindle. |
