Slimy slugs can be every gardener’s worst nightmare. They do a lot of damage to your plants and they reproduce so quickly you feel like you can never eradicate them. Fear not, as these 7 Safe Ways to Get Rid of Slugs in Your Garden will help you remove them naturally and without chemicals!
7 Safe Ways to Get Rid of Slugs in your Garden
1. Broken Eggshells– Eggshells injure a slug’s soft body and cause them to die. Microwave the shells for one minute to sterilize so you don’t attract other critters to the smell. Crush the shells in a plastic bag and sprinkle around your plants to keep the slugs away.
2. Attract Toads– Toads love to eat slugs, so keeping them near your garden is a safe way to eradicate the pests. Place shallow troughs of water around your plants, particularly in a shady place where the toads could gather to get out of the heat.
3. Beer Traps– Slugs love the scent of beer, so having just enough to trap and drown the insects is a safe way to get rid of them. Empty a fresh bottle of beer, leaving an inch or so in the bottom. Turn the bottle on its side and press down into the soil, leaving one inch above the soil. The slugs will make their way to the beer, so you can remove the bottle filled with them in a day or two.
4. Hairy Barrier– Hair, especially human or dog, is not friendly to slugs. They get tangled in it and die. Brush your pets, ask your barber to hold some trimmings, or trim a family member’s hair to create a barrier around your precious produce and keep the slugs away.
5. Grapefruit Traps– Similar to the beer traps, slugs are attracted to citrus fruits and will come crawling to the peels. When you have an afternoon snack, leave the grapefruit peel intact in the shape of a bowl. Place a small hole into the peel and sit it beside your plants. When you check back later, you should have some slugs trapped beneath it.
6. Cover Slug Trails– In order to prevent other slugs from following their friends, monitor your garden daily for any slimy trails. Destroy the tracks with water or by tilling the soil a bit with a small trowel.
7. Garlic Wall– Slugs cannot stand the heavy scent of garlic. Line your garden with garlic plants to keep the pests at bay!
More Ways to Eliminate Garden Pests:
7 Natural Ways to Repel Rabbits from your Garden
How to Make a Homemade Earwig Trap
5 Tips for Attracting Bats to Your Garden
Barb Frigmanski says
Is there such a thing as a “ Clay Nest” Of Slugs. Digging behind my new condo which is mostly Clay soil I dug up a huge rock size ball of clay ( similar to a beehive) only clay full of slug after slug. Like a colony?????
Dianne says
I’m trying Milky Spore this year..I read about it ..its a good fungus that grows/spreads in the soil.. it is natural and lasts 2-3 years (?) I do also use the the salt if spotting them crawling around. Yuck!
Kathy Fast says
Dianne, did Milky Spore work for you? I thought I read, once upon a time, that oatmeal or regular cornmeal works well. It’s supposed to swell up inside the slugs to kill them. This past summer was my first year in this house, and I now know there are turns of slugs around. In my hosta, in patients, and many other plants.
Teresa says
Collect slugs on a damp evening using a shove. Tip into a gardening jug, cover with water then flush them down the loo! I collected over forty in ten minutes,
Chris A says
Thanks all , the salt works great!! Trying to keep my Mom’s flowers alive and again right they come out at night a LOT!!!
Michelle says
In recent years we have been infested, the tiger slugs have invaded our retaining wall and have migrated towards the siding on our house! I have tried ALL things natural and otherwise; however the only thing that works is salt. Any suggestions to rid these ugly beasts for good?
Inga Lasko says
I live in Winnipeg, our summer is so short, I don’t need all that salt in my soil.egg shells work great for me.dry it out, crush it up really find, and sprinkle it around each plant.
Laurette says
Salt so far for me works best. I buy a box of pickling salt, cheaper, and sprinkle thinly in the afternoon between watering. I water my plants every 3-4 days. They come out in early evening. I also place old pieces of wood in moist areas for them to go under, collect and with gloved fingers, give them a good squeeze. My neighbors don’t do nothing about their slugs, so their slug and snail cousins comes over to party in my lush garden.
Margie says
When I am on a slug hunt, I use a plastic fork to pick them up. No need for gloves. Keep a paper cup and plastic fork accessible outside for spur of the moment sightings. You can put salt or beer in the cup or dump them in a bag or container.
Micheline says
I put tobacco around de plant or the pots and the slugs always die. I have been doing this for years and it works very well. Try it!
Susan Downing says
You may think this is a good idea, But when it rains the tobacco chemical.Nicotine Leaches into the soil and is taken up by the plant which in turn ends up in the flowers of the plant and then into the Pollen in the flower. if the bees touch that pollen they will die, If the bees make it back to their bee Colony and transfer the pollen around the bee colony they too will be affected by the nicotine and die, With the threat of bees being wiped out the way man is affecting the planets trees and plants and flower enviourement, If all the bees die then slowly man dies, So the best way to tackle the slugs is do it naturally if you can,, encourage wild life into your garden that eats them like the hedgehog, but there is one slug that has gone really mad where I live and that is those big fat long orange slugs, the birds will not eat them or the frogs or the hedge hogs, so what I do is wait until it rains, Get out my field glasses and scour my garden, If I spot them I put on my attire for rainy weather and arm myself with plastic bags, which I use to wrap my sandwiches in with a good dose of salt in. I then put on a pair of surgical gloves and go and retrieve the little buggers.and put them in the bag of salt if I have collected too many I knot the bag then throw them in the bin,don’t just chuck them in the bin because they will just crawl out, Do this everyday until it slows down until there none to be found at all. Because do not forget if they meet up with another sexy slug they will mate and lay thousands of eggs and the following year you will be inundated with the pesky varmints. I hope this tip of mine is useful to you.
Jo says
If nothing else that made me laugh??? I think going and cole ring them is the only answer though
Beth says
I literally cut them in half. I killed hundreds this way last year. 200 or more in an evening. I also go out in the morning before they go back to their holes. This spring and summer I may have killed 100 if that. I rarely see any now. I will have to let my husband know I am not the only “slug slayer” around. Lol
Marie says
Yes how much salt and water
Savitha says
I have had slug problems too and the best way to eradicate them is common salt. Make a concentrate of salt and water and spray the slugs, lift the pots and spray on the spot it sits on or simply put salt on the slug and it will die. I have sprayed my entire garden with concentrated salt water taking care not to spray at the plant roots. My garden is slug free this season! This works for snails too.
Monika says
Have you tried usejng coffee grounds
Avie says
What combination of salt to water is needed? Thanks
Adriel says
Won’t the salt kill the plants?
Anna Maida says
what is the ratio of water to salt? I am out of my mind they are killing everything
Nancy Netardus says
I’ve tried all of the above and none of them work. Still looking for a way to get rid of them. The only thing that seems to keep from having so many is to kill them and the deter them is not working. So, I’ve bought commercial Slug-on, not working yet, and I’ve been making a mixture of ammonia and water, getting up early in the mornings and spraying them and in the evenings also.
If anyone has another suggestions, please share.
Thanks….Nancy
Julia duggan says
For pots spray the outside of pots with 3and1 oil the slugs can’t climb up it. Strip back old electrical wire take out the copper cut it to size leaving room for plant to spread, join the wire at the base of plant the slugs , snails hate copper. Hope this helps it did me.
Linda says
You can buy copper roofing tape to put around the edge of raised beds. Also put a frame around the plant and use the copper tape on that. The copper roofing tape is usually put on the apex of a roof to prevent moss.
Melanie says
I haven’t tried it yet but someone told me to circle the base of the plant with sand…? Slugs don’t like going over it.
Ger o byrne says
Coffee granules. I get used coffee from a friend who works in a coffee shop and sprinkle it on top of soil.It keeps slugs away and also deters cats from fouling! Only problem is it washes away if there’s a lot of rain and you have to reapply, which happens a lot in ireland
S. Narvaez says
Nancy,
I found a wonderful use for my pesky blackberry vines. I circle plants in areas where I want to keep slugs out with my cutoffs. The slugs won’t cross the thorny barrier. It works like a charm. It’s all natural, and it takes a couple of seasons for the vines to decompose. Less work over all for me! I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Susana
Christy says
I’ve heard corn meal works to keep slugs off your plants. I have not tried this myself, but I guess it’s worth trying if nothing else seems to be working. Good luck.
Beth says
Last year I was so fed up with slugs I personally went around the yard and killed them. At first there were hundreds. I would kill 200 in a night. I just took a knife and sliced them in two. My husband calls me the “slug slayer”. I know it seems a bit extreme but it worked. This year I may have killed a 100 all spring and summer. I rarely see any now and I live surrounded by fields and woods. Some of the other suggestions people wrote I have heard work very well.
Tammy says
This is the first I’ve had ducks old enough to run lose in the garden. I let them in a few hours a week. They get so many slugs and snails. Their beaks are almost glued (slimmed) shut ?
Terri says
II put salt on them that will kill them