How to protect your garden against slugs and snails!
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
When you have been very busy with your garden and everything is in bloom you would like to keep it that way. Unfortunately, snails sometimes leave a trail of destruction behind them and eat holes in your plants. Slugs are especially active in spring and fall when it's humid, but also in the cool and wet summers.
Slugs love fresh young leaves and especially in spring they are naturally abundant in gardens. At night the slugs and snails set out and within a few hours they can destroy an entire (vegetable) garden.
Combat slugs in an environmentally friendly way
Many pesticides are harmful to the environment and to other animals in the garden. We recommend choosing an environmentally friendly method, so that other animals can continue to enjoy your garden with peace of mind.
Place a slug trap in the garden
Our slug trap is kind to the environment. Place the snail trap in a place where the snails cause the most damage. Fill the trap with beer, these animals love yeast. They will crawl into the trap, get 'drunk' and are unable to get out. In the morning you can easily remove the snails.
Other ways to chase away snails
A strip of copper tape around a flower prevents slugs and snails from crawling up the flower, as they hate copper. This way, you make sure that the slug stays away from a specific plant or vegetable. They do not like rough materials either, materials such as coffee grounds, cocoa beans and shell sand cause the critters to dry out and cannot move around properly. Sprinkle a layer of these materials just before your soil where the plants are growing in.
More tips for controlling snails
- Place pieces of apple under an old roof tile in the garden. Slugs and snails are attracted to them. In the morning you can easily remove the slugs. The fruit also attracts birds to the garden.
- Hoe the garden regularly, this dries out the top layer of soil. This makes it harder for the snail to move around.
- Snails prefer to emerge at dawn after a good rain. Therefore, water your (vegetable) garden preferably in the morning so that it has time to dry up in the afternoon. And there's no twilight waterparty for slugs to go to.
- Barricade and surround your crops and young plants with eggshells, this structure is not very pleasant for a slug's body.
- Attract other animals to the garden. Animals such as birds, hedgehogs and toads eat snails. This is a natural way to prevent snails in your garden.