Controlling Slugs and Snails Sheffield

Controlling Slugs and Snails

Slugs and snails are without doubt the worst pest in the garden.

Many times seeds are sown and appear not to germinate when in fact they have been eaten by slugs overnight. Their appetite is voracious and their taste in plants extraordinarily varied but they all prefer succulent seedlings that are least able to resist the damage.

It has been estimated that slugs can consume twice their own body-weight every day. A slug weighing 0.1oz would, over a 20 week growing season, consume an incredible 1.75lbs of plants and vegetables - each! Since a cubic metre of your garden can contain 200 slugs, you can see they're a major problem.

Because slugs are nocturnal you may only notice one or two in the day. Come out just after dusk with a torch and you will be horrified to see how many there are happily eating your prize plants.

Can You Win Against Slugs?

Having already said how many there are in the garden, I'm afraid you have another problem. Slugs are hermaphrodites having both male and female organs, so every individual can lay eggs. They lay about 300 each in batches ranging from 10 to 50 at a time. The eggs, which look like tapioca, hatch after ten days but can take up to 100 days in cold weather. So even if you kill every slug in your garden within a couple of weeks you will have them back. This is a war you can not win outright but you can keep the problem under control

Controlling Slugs & Snails

There are many ways to reduce the slug population and the damage they cause.

Hunting and Trapping Slugs

The best time to catch slugs and snails is around dusk when they come out to feed. Take a torch, those you wear on your head are really good as they leave your hands free and you will find them. You can drop them into a bucket of salty water, chop them in half or save them to feed to chickens. Don't be kind and move them elsewhere, they'll just come back.

Placing a hollow half grapefruit or large orange will provide a place for them to hide. Lift the cover and you will find the slugs. Beer or milk traps work well but you need to empty them quite frequently, which can be a smelly unpleasant job.

Barriers to Slugs and Snails

Putting a barrier around your plants will stop slugs getting to them, unless they are inside your barrier already, of course. Crushed eggshells, sharp grit work to some degree as they don't like the sharp edges. Slug Stoppa granules are pretty effective and copper rings or tape work fairly well.

The problem with barriers is that they can be expensive to maintain and just trap slugs already inside.

Encourage Slug Predators

You do have some allies in the battle. Many birds will eat slugs for you as will hedgehogs. Slugs make up a quarter of a frog’s diet, they’re also popular with newts and toads. A garden pond is the best way to keep these predators around. Carabid beetles (black beetles) love eating slugs and their eggs so a really useful creature.

Biological ...