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Slug & snail control
Slugs and snails are the number one garden plant pest problem. They attack a wide range of young and tender garden plants, especially annuals, perennials - particularly hostas - and vegetables. Gardeners with slug or snail problems should take steps to control them.
Slugs and snails eat irregularly shaped holes in leaves, stems, buds and flowers, as well as bulbs, corms and tubers. Some slugs, especially keel slugs, spend most or all their life underground and are a real problem on potatoes and other underground storage organs.
Most slugs feed at night, although not exclusively, and tell-tale slime trails are often present. Slug and snail damage is most severe during warm humid periods, especially in spring and autumn.
Slug & snail control
Some birds, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, slow-worms and ground beetles eat slugs and these should be encouraged into your garden.
Always remove debris and fallen leaves as these make excellent hiding places and breeding grounds for slugs and snails.
A biological control (Nemaslug) based on microscopic nematodes is available from a number of biological control suppliers. See suppliers list.
Numerous other non-chemical control methods are available, but I'm not totally convinced about their efficacy. Many barrier types, for example, won't stop those slugs that live in the soil! However, some people swear by them, so who am I to disagree.
Place traps, such as scooped-out half oranges, grapefruits or melons skins, laid cut side down, or jam jars part-filled with beer sunk into the soil near vulnerable plants. Check and empty regularly. Proprietary traps are available from numerous suppliers. I don't like beer traps (it's a waste of good beer!) as they also trap gardening friends, such as ground beetles
Place barriers around susceptible plants.
These include anything sharp and gritty including sharp sand, egg shells and cinders. Moisture-absorbent minerals are available to place around plants to create barriers, including Growing Success Slug Stop, Vitax Slug Off and Westland Earth Matters Slug Blocker Granules. Similarly, gel repellents are available - Doff Slug Defence Gel and Westland Earth Matters Slug Blocker Gel.
Around pots or raised beds you can use copper tape (Agralan Copper Slug Tape, Growing Success Slug Barrier Tape, Vitax Copper Slug Tape) or stand containers on copper-impregnated matting (Agralan Slug and Weed Mat, Slug and Snail Shocka). These create a mild electric shock for the slug!
There are numerous chemical controls.
In my garden, I start the year (January/February) using aluminium sulphate (Doff Slug Attack) as this kills slugs and slug and snail eggs. Then, for the rest of the year, I use slug pellets.
Although slug pellets have a bad press and are assumed to kill all sorts of wildlife, when used correctly they pose little or no problem. I have lots of frogs, toads and newts, hedgehogs and thrushes - and no problems from slugs and snails!
Thinly scatter metaldehyde-based slug pellets (Bayer Bio Slug and Snail Killer Pellets, Doff Advanced Slug Killer, Doff Slug Killer Blue Mini-pellets, Scotts SlugClear Advanced Pellets,Westland Eraza Slug & Snail Killer Pellets) around vulnerable plants; don't pile them up under bricks or half grapefruit skins as this isn't how they should be used and can create problems.
A liquid formulation of metaldehyde (Scotts SlugClear) is available for watering on to the soil around ornamental plants and the soil.
If you're worried about using slug pellets, use aluminium sulphate or a pelleted bait containing ferric phosphate (Bayer Organic Slug Bait, Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer, Vitax Slug Death XL).
Keep a close eye on plants once you notice slug or snail attacks and deal with any further outbreaks you see. Go out with a torch during the evening and pick them off by hand and place in a container. Kill them in hot water or a strong salt solution. Don't throw them over the fence; believe it or not, they have a strong homing instinct and will soon come back.
Suppliers
- Bayer Garden, 230 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0WB; gardening.adviser@bayergarden.co.uk
- Biowise, Hoyle Depot, Graffham, Petworth, West Sussex GU28 0LR (biological control)
- Defenders, PO Box 131, Ashford, Kent TN25 5EN; info@defenders.co.uk (biological control)
- Doff, Aerial Way, Off Watnall Road, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire NG15 6DW
- Green Gardener, Chandlers End, Mill Road, Stokesby, Great Yarmouth NR29 3EY (biological control)
- Growing Success, Unit 1, Quarrywood Industrial Estate, Burntash Road, Aylesford, Maidstone, Kent ME20 7AD
- Just Green, Unit 14, Springfield Road Industrial Estate, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex CM0 8UA; (biological control) sales@just-green.com
- Organic Gardening Catalogue, Riverdene Business Park, Molesey Road, Hersham, Surrey KT12 4RG (biological control)
- Scarletts Plant Care, The Glasshouses, Fletching Common, Newick, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 4JJ (biological control)
- The Natural Gardener, The Steppes, Hope under Dinmore, nr Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 0PP (biological control)
- The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Salisbury House, Weyside Park, Catteshall Lane, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XE; consumerenquiriesuk@scotts.com
- Vitax, Owen Street, Coalville, Leicestershire LE67 3DE
- Westland Horticulture, 14 Granville Industrial Estate, Granville Road, Dungannon, County Tyrone BT70 1NJ
If you want to know more, or if you've got a gardening problem you need help with, then send an e-mail to: info@gardenforumhorticulture.co.uk
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