Biological remedies against slugs

Slugs are a major stress test for every gardener. As soon as the first plants sprout, they are there and can be found everywhere. Slug pellets and other chemical agents are not a solution as they not only kill the slugs but also their natural enemies and can cause serious damage to the garden.

No endless fight against slugs

The slug consciously chooses a garden. Especially in humid summers, it becomes a nuisance and rarely comes alone. A garden designed in a natural way exerts a special attraction on the reptiles and lets them descend in large flocks. A single snail can produce up to 600 offspring over the course of a year, causing an unstoppable plague in the garden. Regular use is required here and you should check the conditions in the garden.

Proper floor care to prevent snail infestation

When spring has arrived, it brings the slugs with it. It is already too late for prevention at this point, so the gardener has to become active before the garden goes into hibernation and defend himself against slugs and their entry. There are various options here, of which floor care is one of the most important details. You don't see any snails and therefore believe that there aren't any? You may be right, but with that thought, forget the slug eggs that are already in the ground just waiting for spring to come and hatch when temperatures are warmer leaves. If you loosen the soil in autumn and are careful when covering it with bark mulch and don't overlook a clutch of slugs, you won't have to reckon with an armada of slugs in spring. The looser and more crumbly the soil is prepared, the greater the chance of destroying all the clutches and being successful in prevention. If the gardener discovers a clutch of snails in the ground, he can remove them and then cover the ground with bark mulch.

Different ways to eliminate slugs

The most difficult and guaranteed most time-consuming, but also the most effective method against slugs is the individual treatment. You should get up early for this, since slugs use the morning hours to search for food. They are only active all day on rainy days and can be collected from the plants and from the soil. A morning quick visit to the garden declares war on the nudibranch plague and leads to that capture most of the unwelcome visitors in the garden, collect them and remove them from your property can. The following options have proven effective against slugs and made the garden unattractive for the animals:

• the snail fence from the hardware store
• the beer trap as an effective classic
• individual care by collecting
• attract animal predators of the snail (hedgehogs, birds, shrews, toads)
• Unattractive planting with aromatic herbs for slugs.

A hedgehog or shrew in the garden is a natural and efficient way to control the slug population. Since the snail is on the menu for these animals, a garden that is hedgehog-friendly and designed with nesting boxes to attract various species of birds is ideal. Runner ducks are only minimally suitable, as they like the snails on the one hand, but also the lettuce on the other hand and therefore do not necessarily only consider the eating pests as a source of food. A fence can help here to keep the ducks away from the beds. However, this has the consequence that, in combination with running ducks, the snails should also be collected on the plants every day.

Slugs do not like all plants

It is best for the gardener to find out about the preferences of slugs and arrange for a mixed planting of his beds. The primary preferences of the slug include all forms of lettuce, but also some flowering plants and the fresh shoots of shrubs and perennials. Herbs and plants are less popular and repulsive for the animal species because of their strong scent and essential oils. Between the salad, the gardener can, for example:

• dill
• Nasturtium
• thyme
• sage
• peppermint
• Sweet William
• or columbine

plant and thus prevent the slugs from eating. An aromatic bed is visited much less frequently than a bed of lettuce, which the slug will use as if it were a buffet prepared especially for it. A combination of all measures is best suited. If the gardener loosens the soil in the fall, destroying existing nests with snail eggs, planting wisely and not according to the taste of the slug and on top of that an animal-friendly garden, the hedgehog, birds and other predators of the snail invites, he will only discover a very small number of snails when collecting in the morning and will be successful in combating them without any chemicals be.

A humane way of dealing with the plague of snails

As a gardener who is angry and damaged by slugs, the first thing you think about is removing the feeding pests from the bed. It is not uncommon for snails to be carelessly placed on the compost. This is not very efficient as slugs are cannibals and this practice attracts new slugs. Any treatment with hot water, salt or killing the animals should be avoided. If the gardener finds dead slugs, he should bury them to prevent other species from becoming aware and being attracted to the dead slug. Snails that have been collected or found in the beer trap are best taken to a meadow some distance from your own garden. In order not to upset the neighborhood, one should not carelessly throw the animals over the fence and think that they will continue to eat at the neighbor's and no longer care for their own garden interested.

Conclusion: With a numerous plague of snails, some gardeners feel like they are fighting windmills. Even if the number of slugs appears to be an almost unsolvable problem at the beginning of the biological removal, consistency and permanent commitment will quickly lead to success. Anyone who attracts natural predators of snails and offers them nice quarters in the garden makes work easier and receives effective and helpful support from nature.

Worth knowing about remedies against slugs

• Although the daily collection is helpful, it is extremely time-consuming and annoying, but it also helps against egg-laying in any case!
• By the way, old boards offer a very good possibility for collecting: the slugs collect underneath.
• Of course they should snails not be released again in distant places afterwards!
• You can z. B. douse with hot water or vinegar and then discard.

Many hobby gardeners swear by beer as a tried and tested household remedy: a cup half full with Beer dig filled in the garden up to the edge of the container and are attracted by the smell of the beer, they fall snails in and drown. An unpleasant side effect, however, is that the scent of the liquid causes more snails could be attracted from the neighboring gardens.

Of course, disposing of those cups isn't a pleasant task afterwards, so it would be a good idea not to give these pests a chance to get onto the beds in the first place:

• Copper wire is the solution. This can be stretched around the garden, just above the ground.
• The slugs can't crawl under it because copper is poisonous to the slugs because it oxidizes on their skin.
• Of course, copper is completely harmless to vegetables, salads, etc.

Also slug pellets is a commonly used snail control agent, but carries the risk of being harmful to other animals. If you want to do without chemicals completely, it is best to switch to plants (summer flowers, perennials and useful plants) that are resistant to snails.

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