When it comes to dealing with slugs you have two main ways of dealing with them, prevention or elimination. Each method can then broken down into further subcategories.
Prevention
So the main idea behind all of these methods below is to stop slugs from getting at your plants rather than killing them.
You stop them from getting at your veggies or flowers and instead let them eat dead and decaying matter, as they should!
Slug Barrier
These barriers stop the slugs from being able to crawl over them. Slugs apparently will not go over a 90-degree angle, you can look it up on YouTube, a few people have tested the theory and it seems to hold.
So you set this barrier up along the perimeter of your beds or raised beds and it will stop the slugs from being able to get in. That's the idea anyway.
- Slug and snail deterrent barrier is pre-folded for easy use and assembly and prevents damage to plants
Slug Collars
This is the same idea as above but the collars go around individual plants in your garden.
Slug collars have been around a while. The downside to them is you have to put them round each and every plant.
This quickly becomes a real pain if you have a lot of plants to protect.
There are plastic and copper collars available, the copper ones apparently have a double action in that slugs don't like coming into contact with copper. They are a lot more expensive though!
Homemade Deterrents
There are lots of homemade deterrents that you can apparently sprinkle around your plants which in theory, should stop slugs.
Eggshells are a really common one that gets suggested all the time. Apparently, slugs don't like crawling over the sharp edges of eggshells.
Some people say it works and some people say it doesn't. I would say that it is worth trying though as it is not going to cause any harm and the calcium in the eggshells is good for the soil.
Option Two - Attack
Here come the more aggressive options for those who have had enough!
Slug Pellets
The classic way to kill off slugs and it does work, there are however drawbacks.
Firstly the little blue pellets aren't safe to have around if you have pets or young children who might digest them accidentally.
Next, there is the fact that they may be harmful to slugs' natural predators like hedgehogs who eat slugs killed by pellets, therefore, ingesting the poison themselves.
And then there is the mess they leave, lots of dead slugs on the surface of your garden with nasty trails everywhere.
Nematodes
This is a natural and organic way to kill slugs. There are all kinds of nematodes, which are tiny little creatures that live in your soil, some of these nematodes kill slugs.
This is entirely natural and is what happens in your soil all the time. By adding nematodes you are just increasing the number of the slug-killing type.
One of the advantages of this method aside from the fact you don't have to use poison is that part of the way the nematodes kill the slugs makes them burrow into the ground before dying, so no nasty dead slugs lying around!
Control slugs NATURALLY by applying Nemaslug Slug Killer, which contains natural nematodes, that are effective at controlling slugs, but unlike chemical controls, are safe for children, pets, birds and wildlife.
Torch & Bucket
The manual method, and as is often the case with the manual method, this is very effective but time-consuming.
Wait until dark, go out into the garden with a torch, gloves, and a bucket and start collecting slugs.
This is best done on a damp night after heavy rain as then the slugs will be everywhere, happy hunting!
Slug Traps
You can set up traps to capture slugs and then dispose of them how you wish. There are lots of different ways to do this but one of the more popular ones is a beer trap.
With a beer trap, you set a container, usually a plastic tub of some kind, level with the surface of the soil. You want it level with the surface so slugs can easily get into it but you want the bottom to be deep, so they can't get out.
You then fill the bottom with some beer, which slugs adore, and leave it. The slugs will make their way into the trap and either drown or be waiting there come morning for you to get rid of them.
One downside to this apart from all the slug carcases you will be getting rid of is that the beer is so potent that it can apparently attract slugs up to 200 meters away and therefore bring even more slugs into your garden than were there before!
Brenda Rodgers says
Hello, I was wondering how to contact you, this is not about slugs. I have a flower bed in my front garden. Cats dig the plants out to use it as a toilet. Please do you have any ideas how I can stop the cats doing this.. Strangely it is very seldom I see cats in the area.
Daniel says
Hi Brenda, check out this article https://patientgardener.co.uk/how-to-keep-cats-off-your-garden-beds/ 🙂
Liz says
Either buy a pack of plastic picnic forks and stick in the ground where ever there is bare soul until the plants grow large enough, once thesoil is covered they won't try. Tynes side up. Alternatively use sticks, collent all about 12 inches, poke into the soul on an angle facing towards the cat. Plant close enough together so the cat can't walk between. Leave in place long enough for the cats to find another loo and forget about yours. The sticks are less visible than forks but both very effective if done right. My 2 cats never go on my beds using this method.
Alison Flett says
How do you stop slugs coming into the house?
Daniel says
I used to put salt and pellets around the outside of my house, also putting some beer traps in the garden could help guide them away from the house
Kim says
I try to attract frogs into my garden, we have added a little sunken water feature that we made using recycled materials, to make it not inviting for the frogs but also birds - whilst also adding to the biodiversity of our garden
Kim says
I try to attract frogs into my garden, we have added a little sunken water feature that we made using recycled materials, to make it not only inviting for the frogs but also birds – whilst also adding to the biodiversity of our garden
I also make little collars out copper tape wrapped round roll centres to go around my plants to protect from the slugs
Daniel says
Love this Kim!
Pat says
Liz: I often use beer traps. This may sound odd, but I've had far greater success with expensive beer than with cheap supermarket brands. I've run comparative tests and there's no doubting it. It may be as simple as alcohol content, but I'm not convinced.