Is your garden plagued by slugs and snails? The Spanish varieties seem to be extremely plentiful, not to mention extremely persistent in eating off anything small and green – except weeds of course, which they leave alone.
But not everyone wishes to use commercial slug pellets, particularly if there are inquisitive children and/or pets around, and indeed slug pellets actually attract ants. Amazingly ants adore them, and carry them back to their nests, thus creating a two-fold problem: more ants, and the need to keep replacing the pellets.
So here instead are some ingenuous alternatives – some more practical than others.
1) Beer. According to many local gardeners, it really does work -- and this method is also the best non-personal way to confirm that overnight damage is due to the slimy beasts. Just don’t use the often-cited ‘stale beer’, which slugs like about as much as you and I do. Place commercial traps or old margarine tubs on top of the soil close to the damaged plants, wait until dusk and then fill them with the cheapest—but freshest—beer you can find. The next morning, they should be filled with dead drunken slugs. Dump this defeated debris nearby (where it will attract their cannibalistic pals) and repeat every evening.
2) Coffee. New research has found caffeine to be very effective at dispatching slugs. Save your dregs and spray them full strength directly on the beasts in the evening. Surround plants under attack with a mulch of used coffee grounds to deter slugs and feed the plants.
3) Iron phosphate. Apparently iron is fatal for a slug’s digestion. So a new generation of products with brand names such as ‘Sluggo’ and ‘Escar-Go!’ wrap iron in a slug-attracting bait. You simply scatter the pellets around plants in peril to wipe out the pests without poisons. (And a little extra iron is good for your garden soil.)
4) Copper. Slugs get shocked when they touch this shiny metal. You can buy ready-made copper plant guards or just adorn your raised bed frames with copper flashing. Hot-glue rings of pennies around the tops of your containers.
5) Diatomaceous earth. Available at garden centres, ‘DE’ is the mined fossilised remains of dinosaur-era, sea-going creatures called diatoms. It looks like white flour, but is incredibly sharp on a microscopic level, dehydrating slugs on contact. Surround plants under attack with protective rings of DE (be sure to wear a dust mask); freshen them up if they get wet.
6) Boards. Lay some old planks between your garden beds. The vampiric slugs will crawl underneath to hide from the sun. Come morning, lift the boards and scrape the slugs into a bucket with a flat piece of metal. Then do with them what you will.
7) Human hair. Surround your plants with a protective barrier of hair. The slugs will get all tangled up in it and strangle, and the hair will eventually add plant-feeding nitrogen to the soil.
8) Citrus. Leave lemon, orange and grapefruit rinds out overnight near slug-prone plants, and then collect and trash them—covered with slugs—first thing the next morning. Old lettuce leaves work well too.
9) Vinegar. A spray bottle filled with plain white vinegar is a great cure for slugs that aren’t on plants. An extremely effective mollusc dissolver, vinegar is also a herbicide—so don’t spritz the salvia.
10) Rove beetles. These big black bugs don’t bother plants, but do eat LOTS of slugs and their eggs. So don’t hurt them!
11) Ducks. Just turn a few loose in the garden—these feathered friends (and natural fertilizer providers) are among nature’s FINEST slug-eaters. The only problem is, they are notoriously messy so don’t allow them access to any precious plants.
