A corner of my garden is in the shade for most of the day, even in summer, and this has provided me with a great opportunity to create a mini woodland type space, complete with the smallest oak tree you’ve ever seen, that was a self-seeded rescue from another part of the garden.
What I hadn’t realised at the time was that although it offers a great habitat for all sorts of creatures that otherwise wouldn’t visit the garden, it is also a magnet for what feels like every slug in the neighbourhood.
The odd slug or two would be welcome but when they bring their friends along for an all-you-can eat feast on my plants, maybe not quite so much.
If you spot holes and new jagged edges on your plant leaves, or even some leaves completely stripped from the plant, you too may be inadvertently hosting a slug food festival. Any slimy trails will also be a giveaway, as will small white eggs in the soil, (each slug can lay up to 500 eggs in a season) that then hatch in the spring with voracious appetites.
They can be super cute with their cartoon like appearance and little antennae and I’d never advocate harming them but I do want to limit the population and retain at least some of my newly emerging plants.
The best solution is to have a strong eco-system in your garden which will provide a sustainable balance without too much intervention, but if like me, you’re still developing this (more handy info. can be found here New Year, New Start ) then hopefully some of these natural, eco-friendly strategies to help stop slug damage will help.
Housekeeping
Slugs love dark, damp spaces to hide in, so keeping the garden tidy can reduce places for large numbers of them to gather. Before eggs hatch in early spring, remove any fallen leaves, winter debris, and eggs, if you spot them. I like to leave the collected matter to one side for an hour or so before composting so that any overwintering insects that may be hiding, can find a new home.
Thinning out and dividing your plants at this time of year can also help to provide light and air to the soil, as well as encouraging vigour and boosting the stock of your favourite plants, more about that here Divide and Multiply
Pruning the lower leaves and branches of shrubs and trees can also help in this way too.
When you spot a slug trail on a path or patio, wash it away with a mist of vinegar. This is a good tip as they are used to send messages to other slugs, such as mating signals and that there’s tasty food around.
Encourage Natural Predators
Developing the wider eco-system in your garden by encouraging natural slug predators is one of the very best ideas as it means that nature takes care of the problem without too much intervention.
Birds
You can make your space attractive to birds by either offering food and/or water, developing an attractive habitat for them or even something as simple as providing a bird bath after which they can snack on some of your unwanted pests.
Hedgehogs
Leaving gaps in gates and fencing at ground height can provide hedgehogs a safe and easy route around your neighbourhood and, as they are most active at nightfall, when the slugs are out, they will certainly pick off some of those pesky critters.
Frogs and toads
A simple pond or water feature will encourage frogs, toads and possibly even newts to your space, all of which enjoy a slug based snack.
Chickens and ducks
Depending on the size of your outdoor space, chickens and ducks might be an option and you could also enjoy some free range eggs too.
Planting
Slug numbers can be reduced dramatically if you are prepared to choose and grow plants that either they do not like to eat or do not like to smell.
Ferns, peonies, stachys, rose campion, phlox, alchemilla mollis, geranium, dianthus, pulmonaria and many others with hairy or prickly leaves seem to be very unattractive to slugs.
Highly scented plants such as lavender and herbs like rosemary and sage not only look and taste great to us, but actively repel the slugs, so can be good options.
An effective decoy plant such as camomile can be planted away from main flower beds as a sacrificial offering. Lightly crushing the leaves in the evening helps to draw the slugs towards it and away from your favourite plants.
Ivy planted in a shady spot away from your growing space can also attract slugs away from your plants.
Trees, shrubs and most ornamental grasses tend to be overlooked by slugs, so offer low maintenance planting options, as does a drought tolerant growing space that has drier soil and so does not provide a favourable slug habitat.
Some plants I have found particularly attractive to slugs, that you may wish to avoid if you’d rather not have to manage them so carefully, are marigolds, hostas, dahlias and delphiniums.
Barriers
There are many suggestions for barrier materials that can help to deter slugs when sprinkled in a ring around their favourite plants, these include:
Egg shells
Dried in the oven or microwave and then crushed, the sharp edges can act as a deterrent. Over time rain will decrease their effectiveness as they start to decompose naturally but they will add calcium to your soil and can be topped up with new ones.
Grit or sand
Both are uncomfortable for slugs to crawl over and as natural materials will help improve aeration in your soil.
Seashells
Again when crushed, the sharp edges will deter slugs but they don’t decay like eggshells and so can be a nuisance longer term.
Diatomaceous earth
This is made up of fossilised remains of small aquatic organisms called diatoms. It will cause the slugs to dehydrate so is not an option I would favour.
Copper
Thick bands either placed in a circle around, but not touching, a plant stem or even around the edge of a large bed will help. When the slug’s damp body makes contact with the copper, it generates an electrical charge that will quickly make them move on. This option is also really useful for the base of plant pots and containers.
Treats, Traps and Relocation
If like me you prefer not to harm slugs you can safely lure them away from your plants and then release them into a wild space.
Providing a damp, dark spot such as under some wood, cardboard, newspaper or cabbage leaves, away from your main planting area will attract the slugs which will hide underneath. You can then pick them off and release them elsewhere.
This also works with grapefruit when you leave halved, empty peels, cut side down with little doorways cut into them. The slugs will head into them, hiding away until you either collect them the next morning or overturn the peels to provide a tasty breakfast for the birds.
Another option, although one not favoured by me, is a beer trap. A shallow container set in the ground, with the base covered in beer, lures the slugs in and they then drown. It is important to clean these out daily so that pets and other creatures do not ingest the beer.
Smell
As mentioned above, slugs are very sensitive to scents and don’t like anything that smells strongly.
Crushing some cloves of garlic and infusing in a misting spray, or watering can, before lightly sprinkling the mixture over worst affected areas, can be a great deterrent, but the rain does wash away the smell so remember to reapply after damp weather.
Slugs also dislike coffee so sprinkling coffee grounds around the base of plants will act as a repellent, in the same way as filling a spray with cold, strong coffee and spraying the area will.
Water
Slugs love moisture, after all they originally came from the sea, so try to reduce dampness where you can. Watering your garden in the early morning or early evening will ensure the soil has time to dry out before the slugs become active at nightfall. They can travel easily through moist soil, but dry soil makes it much more difficult for them.
Tactical watering only at the base of the plants helps to prevent moisture on the leaves and flowers while maximising the amount that reaches the roots.
A drip irrigation system is a very good way to do this as it slowly drips water only at the base of the plants while keeping the foliage dry. By contrast, a spray or sprinkler will generate more moisture and humidity and so attract more slugs.
You may see, or have heard suggestions about the use of salt to kill slugs and although this does work (causing death by dehydration), I would strongly discourage it as being both cruel and also destructive to plants and the soil.
I hope that this has given you some options that you can use to reduce slug damage to your plants. Perhaps, unlike me last year, you’ll be able to enjoy hostas that don’t look like intricate lace work this summer.
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