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?????