How to (intelligently) get rid of slugs and snails in the garden?

Slugs and snails can become a real problem in the garden. The question on every gardener’s mind: how do you get rid of them? How can we keep these gastropods out of our vegetable garden for good? That’s what we’re going to find out in this article.

6 ways to get rid of gastropods in the garden

Here are 6 ways to get rid of garden slugs and snails (with fast, visible results):

Hand picking slugs:

By dint of your courage, at night, with a headlamp screwed on your head, you take advantage of the night’s dampness to collect the slime.

It’s a bit like mushrooms, with a little less enthusiasm in the hearts.

Once you’ve collected them in your big bucket, if you’re the forgiving type, you’ll release them far from home (more than 300 meters away, so they don’t risk coming back).

It’s a very effective way of getting rid of gastropods in the short term, as long as your motivation allows.

Slug pellets:

You can use iron phosphate granules if you want to decimate the slug population in your garden.

Slugs that ingest them will die.

The short-term effect is often quite clear.

Even if the long-term effects of using iron phosphate granules in the garden are still unclear to me (particularly as regards their potential impact on earthworms), it’s a solution that some traditional gardeners choose.

Anti-slug nematodes:

These are microscopic worms, which you can buy on specialized websites.

These nematodes are predators of slugs and snails, and will quickly eliminate their population.

Here too, short-term results are clearly visible. But nematodes are still quite expensive, and need to be applied frequently.

Indian racing ducks

These ducks, called “runners” because of their “raised” position (which gives us the impression that they are running), are fond of gastropods.

Adopt a pair of Indian runner ducks (note: you’ll need to build them a pond), and you can be sure they’ll get rid of all the slugs and snails in your garden.

But be careful, because adopting Indian racing ducks isn’t always a good idea when it comes to managing slugs in the garden.

Not least because they also crunch your salads, and for other reasons we’ll talk about below, in this article.

The chickens

After the ducks, the chickens!

While Indian racing ducks can rid your garden of large slugs, chickens can only tackle smaller slugs and eggs.

Chickens also have an annoying tendency to scratch the ground with their feet (quickly creating compacted, grass-free soil), and to chew up your plants.

The “chickens” option is therefore usually only conceivable with the use of screened tunnels or other temporary movable enclosures, enabling them to hunt slugs without damaging your vegetable garden too much.

Beer traps

Beer traps are a common solution for controlling slugs in the garden.

It’s true, slugs are very attracted to beer, and many of them end up drowned in the trap.

BUT – and this is why I put this “solution” last on this list – beer traps don’t actually get rid of slugs and snails, even in the short term.

It’s a little-known fact that the smell of beer attracts slugs so much that they come from far and wide in the direction of the beer traps.

From a distance, i.e. over 100 metres! So they come from your neighbors to you.

“But don’t worry, they’ll die in the beer” – I’m usually told.

That’s problem number 2: it turns out that no more than a third of the slugs attracted to beer traps end up drowning in them.

Is it a good idea to attract slugs to your garden from a radius of over 200 meters, and only eliminate a third of them? … Hmmm Kévin, I’m not sure the calculations are right.

In a nutshell,
beer traps are a bad idea for getting rid of slugs
… And you can study the subject in more detail in my dedicated article.

Are killing or moving slugs and snails really sustainable solutions?

As we said, there are several effective solutions to eliminate slugs from your garden.

At least in the short term.

And what does this mean in the long term?

What you need to know is that killing – or even moving – slugs creates what’s known as a yo-yo effect the problem disappears momentarily, then comes back… Sometimes even more so…

This is because an overpopulation of slugs in a garden, as Hervé Coves puts it so wellis a symptom of an imbalance in the garden..

Imbalance due to presence of natural predators of gastropods, which regulate – that regulate slugs over the long term.

But it is also often due to too little plant biodiversityThis is necessary to provide alternative “prey” for slugs, other than your rows of lettuces, when spring arrives.

And, if we eradicate slugs from the garden, their natural predators will never settle in..

The following season, the imbalance will be even greater. Slugs are then likely to return in even greater numbers.

That’s the yo-yo effect.

So, very often, what is recommended is don’t kill or move slugs from your gardeneven if that’s all you want. Just long enough for the rebalancing to take place.

But you’re right.

This wise patience is a little utopian, and few people can accept seeing their salads decimated overnight…

What about slug fences?

And yes? Slug fences!?

Eggshells, ashes, coffee grounds, fine sand, brambles, …

They protect your plants without killing the slugs.

You can therefore wait reasonably long enough to rebalance your garden.

But, as you sadly know, if you too have ever tried it : it doesn’t work. Or at least not sufficiently, not sustainably.

For example:

• Eggshells don’t work at all
• Ash, fine sand and sawdust are barriers that only work when they’re perfectly dry.

Etc…

You can view an analysis of each of these slug barriers in this article on
of several of these natural “anti-slug” products.
.

Even better! Follow scrupulously these 7 steps 👇

This is the action plan I devised following the findings of dozens of scientific studies on the subject.

I owe the success of my cabbages, salads, strawberries and cucurbits to it.

Click here to find out more:

Related articles:

Make (or buy) your own slug-proof barrier

Effective natural slug repellents

Nibbled zucchinis: who’s responsible, and what can be done?

Bibliography :

• Wilson, M. J., Grewal, P. S., Lewis, E. E., & Gaugler, R. (2003). Biological control of slugs and snails: research needs and opportunities. In G. E. Liang & A. F. B. Tomasek (Eds.), Biocomplexity of plant-fungal interactions (pp. 397-417). American Phytopathological Society.

The study examines several different substances for their ability to repel slugs and snails. In particular, the results showed that copper had a repellent effect.