How to deal with slugs in the garden

How to deal with slugs in the garden? Let's go without long lengthy stories about what these creatures eat and where they live. While you read this information, slugs will have time to destroy a decent part of the cultural landings. Less verbiage, more business. Let's get started.

All means of combating slugs are divided into 3 categories:

• luring
• intimidating
• killing

All of them work well enough, but only subject to regularity. You cannot set one trap and wait for a miracle. Otherwise, you have to admire the stumps of vegetables. And the slugs will giggle viciously behind you.

Each method will work much better if you use an integrated approach. Below we describe the most common options, and only you decide which of them are right for you.

Slug Bait

Beer. Absolutely all sources, like parrots, say one thing: slugs are very easy to lure on a foamy drink. They say they pour liquid into any container, they add it to the beds. Then it remains only to periodically change the beer for fresh and throw out the drowned.

In principle, the method works, but with one caveat. Slugs are still those foodies. And they sneezed at your can or bottle beer. Some individuals may risk tasting such a swill, but most mollusks prefer natural unfiltered. Oh how! Such a drink will have to be trapped.

Good if pests attacked a tiny front garden. And if the creatures attacked the garden area of ​​30 acres? An expensive pleasure is obtained.

Sour milk. A much cheaper way. Any family uses kefir, yogurt, sour cream quite often. Glasses and boxes from under them do not need to be thrown away. While there is still a sour smell from the remnants of the liquid, you need to add a little water inside, then add the structure to the beds. It is very important that the sides of the tank do not rise above the surface of the earth, otherwise the slugs will not be able to fall into the trap. Glasses are periodically replaced with new ones, old ones are thrown out along with dead hunters to dairy products.

• board or piece of wood
• 2 flat stones or pieces of ceramic tile
• some yogurt or spoiled sour cream

All that’s needed is to spread one side of the board with sour milk. Then put on stones with a smeared surface to the ground. Naturally, in the beds, and not across the road. A whole crowd of slugs will crawl over the night for a treat. They can simply be collected in a jar or box. What to do with them later - depends on your bloodthirstiness and the damage done to landings.

Fruit. Everywhere there is advice to make a grapefruit bait. No doubt, the slugs will certainly creep into the alluring smell. But this is an inadmissible luxury: to lay out halves of expensive tropical fruit on a plot!

Now turn on the head. If the slugs crawl into your garden, then there is something that attracts them. These are our usual vegetables and fruits. So why not use them? After all, even an old fermented jam or spoiled fruit will do.

The main thing is that there is a sour smell. The trap principle is described above, only instead of kefir can there be rotten strawberries or slices of ripe apple. And do not have to spend money on buying tropical fruits.

Tip. Spoiled juice with the addition of a drop of yeast also attracts great clams.

Slug repellents

Spice. Sprinkle red and black ground pepper into the beds with handfuls - slugs will not work! Good advice if you don’t peck at the money.And it works only until the first watering or decent rain.

Pour these spices into the tongue of such "good" advisers so that they do not write nonsense.

Salt. The call is something like this: sprinkle the earth around the plants with ordinary table salt. Slugs cannot overcome such an obstacle.

Well, yes, the rain will pass, all the salt will be washed off. The pests crawl again, it is necessary to sprinkle the soil again. And then you can safely leave the garden for several years. For in such a salty soil even weeds will stop growing, not like cultivated plantings. The recipe is not very useful.

Lime or fertilizer. It is also recommended not sparing to sprinkle under the plants. They say that slugs die from contact with similar substances.

It is only not mentioned that the body of the pest is protected from lime by a thick layer of mucus. To those who disbelieve are advised to conduct an experiment:

• Sprinkle a circle of lime.
• Plant in the center of the slug.
• Outside the circle, put a piece of spoiled fruit.
• Catch your eyes.

Why catch eyes, not a clam? Because they will come out of your orbits in surprise. When you see how far the slug crawls over the lime, and how much it has time to eat, until it dies. If you die at all.

About the spread of fertilizers without comment at all. They are added for top dressing, and then every gram is calculated, and here they offer to scatter handfuls. What will happen to the soil later? Immediately would have shied away a nuclear charge - the effect is almost identical.

Sawdust, ash, sand, needles. Not metal, of course. Coniferous needles. It is necessary to mulch the beds with a thick layer of sawdust, sand or needles. To increase the effect, sprinkle ash on top. Slugs will not be able to overcome such an obstacle, because they will scratch the belly.

The method works great. But a reasonable question arises: where to get so much mulch? It’s expensive to buy, but she doesn’t lie on the road. And in some areas it will need to be delivered by cars to cover the entire area. What to do? The border!

No, you don’t have to put on a helmet and taunt Mukhtar. Poking a slug with your nose in between with an indication of the forbidden territory is also not necessary. But you have to clearly define the border. To do this, pour 2 dividing strips around the garden with the above materials. Each is at least 20 cm wide. Even if some of the enemies overcome the first, then the second lane to crawl will not be enough mucus.

The method is good in that it significantly saves mulch and time for laying it. One minus: the slugs remaining on the site will not be able to leave it. But you will collect these saboteurs with your own hands.

Plants. Shellfish do not tolerate the aroma of some plants. These are garlic, marigolds, delphinium, tansy, rosemary and thyme. Some sources advise planting them in beds. But the fact is that by themselves, these herbs do not deter slugs. Of them you need to prepare infusions or decoctions, and very strong. On average, 10 g of ordinary water requires from 700 g to 1 kg of plant material.

It is necessary to fill in the crushed grass with boiling water and leave for a day. Then strain and spray the plantings. The remains of steamed plants can be laid out right on the beds. The smell of the infusion remarkably discourages slugs, and toxic substances from the delphinium and tansy poison them.

By the way, if ordinary nettle grows on a site, then it can be cut and put between plantings. Slugs do not like small, dry thorns.

Coffee. It is a masterpiece! Many sources provide the results of a study by scientists on the negative effects of caffeine on the heart of slugs. Allegedly spraying causes them panic and a desire to run away. Are you completely crazy? Explore the slug panic! This is a matter of combating them and disposing of an expensive drink. Because the recipe is far from cheap: 2 tsp. coffee with 200 ml of boiling water and spray the garden.

Do not invent unnecessary material costs. There are other ways to get rid of clams on site.

Radical slug control

Poison. The industry offers many different means aimed at destroying slugs. These are special granules, liquid and tableted preparations for solution guidance. All this must be used in strict accordance with the instructions so as not to harm yourself and your pets. Poison does a good job of its task, but has one drawback. Its validity is only a month. Then the procedure will have to be repeated.

Natural helpers. In nature, slugs are food for birds, animals, amphibians, and insects. Some sources strongly recommend luring such helpers. Well, yes, and when the slugs end, you will have to chase these comrades. Otherwise, they themselves would not mind tasting vegetables and berries.

The only thing that can be advised is to plant more dill, caraway seeds and fennel on the site. These plants attract ground beetles. And they, in turn, literally herds destroy slugs in herds. By the way, insects do not harm other cultural plantings. But they simply adore the larvae of various pests.

Nematode. A wonderful parasite that kills slugs. Sold in the form of a concentrate of living microorganisms. Simply dilute the drug with water and spray the plants and the soil beneath them. According to reviews, protection works for at least 80 days, then the processing will have to be repeated.

The method is noteworthy in that it is absolutely safe for plants, animals and people. But he also has its drawbacks:

• In Russia, the drug is very rare.
• The bottle is indecently expensive.
• Nematodes work only under certain conditions of humidity and ambient temperature.
• Shelf life is very small, about 19 days.

Despite all the disadvantages, the method of combating slugs using a predatory nematode is gaining momentum. Even the cost of delivery from abroad does not stop. It is not surprising, because the invasion of slugs is scary. They do not disdain anything.

Of course, if you notice a couple on a raspberry bush, then the sheepskin is not worth the candle. And if every morning you observe pathetic bits of land instead of landings, then it is better to spend money on a remedy.

Useful Tips

If your site is perfectly clean and the slugs are crawling from an abandoned neighbor’s, then try to dig slate sheets along the boundary. But let them stick out above the ground at least 9-11 cm. And if you periodically spray the fence with drugs containing copper, then the slugs will run away from your site, like fire. A similar effect has copper plates. They simply slightly shock the pests. They do not like slugs of such a meeting.

Does not help? Is the site abandoned? Spray weeds with herbicides. Neighbors do not care, and your life will be much easier, the mollusks will probably go to a more suitable place of residence.

How to deal with slugs in the garden? Cruel and merciless. Do not leave a single chance to pests. Otherwise, they will leave you without a crop.

Video: how to deal with slugs without chemistry