Slugs are a common garden pest that can wreak havoc on your plants and vegetables, but there are simple and efficient ways to get rid of them - including a 21p kitchen staple.
Why Slugs Are a Problem
These gastropods love feasting on fresh growth and young plants, often devastating seedlings overnight. They leave jagged, irregular holes in leaves, flowers, stems, bulbs, tubers, and potatoes, along with a glistening slime trail. While active year-round, they are most destructive in spring and summer when fresh growth is abundant.
Effective and Eco-Friendly Solutions
In a BBC Gardeners' World reader survey, several unexpected methods topped the list for controlling slugs.
Garlic Drench
Slugs are repelled by the pungent scent of garlic. To make a garlic drench, crush two whole garlic bulbs and boil them in a couple of pints of water. Strain the mixture and let it cool. Dilute one tablespoon of this drench in four litres of water and pour it over young plants once a week in the evening. You can also apply it directly to leaves. Reapply regularly, especially after rainfall. A four-pack of garlic costs as little as 87p in supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury's, with each bulb costing roughly 21p.
Pick Them Off After Dark
The most favoured method from the survey is to go out into the garden two hours after dusk with a torch and pick slugs off plants into a bucket of salt water. For a more compassionate approach, release them away from your garden. To make the task easier, lure slugs to a dark corner with dried cat food, old vegetables, oats, bran, or bread rolls. During daylight, check hiding spots like under plant pots, tread boards, pot saucers, and garden furniture.
Create Barriers
Slugs find prickly and sharp materials uncomfortable to crawl over. Popular barriers include bark, cocoa chips, sawdust, ash, cat litter, horticultural grit, wool pellets, coffee grounds, and sand. Remember to top up barriers regularly, as most slugs live beneath the soil.
Unusual Methods
Other unconventional methods include using petroleum jelly as a greasy barrier on seed trays and pots, applying double-sided sticky tape coated in salt on pot rims, and sinking beer traps into the soil using cheap beer.
