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Keeping down the population
of slugs and snails requires persistence. By using a combination of two
or more of the following methods, you should be able to reduce their numbers,
and keep snails and slugs at acceptable levels in the garden.
Hand-pick
at Night
- To be effective, hand-picking
must be thorough and it must be done regularly. Collect nightly until
it’s hard to find snails and slugs, then check once a week.
- The best time for hand-picking
is after 10 or 11 pm when they come out to feed. You can go out earlier,
but you won’t find as many.
- A flashlight and pair of
gloves or tongs will make collecting these slimy creatures easier.
- Crush snails and slugs
completely (otherwise they may recover and walk away) or drown them
in a pail of soapy water (they survive in plain water). A few dead snail
and slug bodies left on the soil surface will attract more snails and
slugs and make your collecting easier, but large piles will breed flies.
Burying crushed mollusks 3 or 4 inches underground will add nutrients
to the soil and avoid fly problems.
Use
Barriers
Before using barriers, hand-pick
for a couple of nights. After the barriers are in place, check for snails
and slugs caught inside the barrier.
- Wrap a strip of copper
(Surefire® Slug and Snail Copper Barrier Tape) around a tree trunk,
flower pot, or the wooden sides of garden beds or fences. Snails and
slugs are repelled by the unpleasant reaction between their bodies and
the copper.
- Cover seedlings with small
cages made from plastic or galvanized metal window screen. Push the
cages into the soil so snails and slugs can’t squeeze under.
- Cover rows of vegetables
with special horticultural fabric (Fast Start®, Seed Blanket) that
lets in light and water but excludes snails and slugs.
- Use a product like SlugStop®(coconut
oil soap) to repel slugs and snails. Apply the material in a ring around
individual plants.
- Snails and slugs may cross
barriers such as diatomaceous earth, lime, sawdust, ashes, etc., especially
when these barriers are wet. Lime, sawdust, and ashes can also be detrimental
to your soil.
Use
Traps
- Snails and slugs can be
trapped under upside-down flower pots, dark-colored plastic sheeting,
and wooden boards. Place these traps around the garden and collect snails
and slugs in early morning.
- Homemade or commercial
pit traps that use beer or yeast mixtures to lure snails and slugs to
a drowning death may help, but hand-picking will probably still be necessary.
Encourage
Natural Predators
Many common ground beetles
kill snails and slugs. Most of these beetles are large (1 to 2 inches),
black, tank-like creatures. They are found in the same moist habitats
as their prey: under rocks, boards, leaves, etc. Avoid killing these allies.
Use
Iron Phosphate Bait
- Choose a bait product carefully.
Baits containing methiocarb kill earthworms and beneficial insects.
- Baits containing iron phosphate
(such as Sluggo® or Escar-Go®) are safer for children and pets
than baits containing metaldehyde. Nevertheless, always keep this and
all other pesticides out of the reach of children and pets.
- After eating iron phosphate,
snails and slugs stop feeding and die within 3 to 6 days. They often
crawl into secluded places, so you may not see dead bodies.
- Reapply iron phosphate
baits every 2 weeks.
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