How to stop snails and slugs eating destroying your garden
SNAILS and slugs are the bane of any budding gardener's life, they can devour cabbages and ruin your flower beds, but with a few simple hacks you can ward off these critters.
This Morning: Holly and Phillip left in hysterics over gardening
From eggshell barriers to beer traps, there are a range of ways you can protect your plants from pesky slugs and snails. To stop irregular-shaped holes and silvery slime trails from appearing on your plants, follow these simple steps for a pest free flower patch.
How to use barriers to stop snail and slug damage
There are many options for controlling slugs and snails but using barriers is a popular non-invasive option.
Copper barriers are popular deterrents.
They have proven to be highly effective, as these pests gets an ‘electric shock’ if they try to cross this barrier, forcing it to retreat.
To make such a barrier stick copper tape around the rims of pots or place copper rings around your plants.
Crushed eggshells can also prevent damage as these critters do not like to move across sharp objects.
Simply crush up empty eggshells into relatively small pieces and scatter them around your plants.
Not only is this a cheap way to stop slugs and snails but it has the added benefit of enriching your soil as the calcium is released into the ground as they decompose.
Broken nutshells and sharp horticultural grit can be used instead of eggs shells to form a barrier as these sharp pieces act in the same way.
How to use beer traps to stop snail and slug damage
Beer traps are another popular cost-effective option to purge your garden of these pests.
Simply sink a container into the soil near your plants with the rim close to the soil level, half fill this with cheap beer, slugs and snails will be drawn to the beer in the container as they find the smell of yeast irresistible.
You can buy special beer traps but empty yoghurt pots work just as well.
Cover lovely with a lid to stop beneficial creatures such as ground beetles from falling in.
Check and empty regularly, if it rains you will need to replace the liquid as it may be too watered down to be effective.
How to use pellets to stop snail and slug damage
Simply scatter slug pellets on the soil around your new plants as soon as you can before the young plant starts to appear.
This will act as a good deterrent to snails and slugs. Replace the pellets regularly for continued protection.
Try to use organic pellets made using ferric phosphate where possible as these are as effective as non-organic ones but are less harmful to other wildlife.
How to use oats to stop snail and slug damage
Oats are another inexpensive hack to prevent snail and slug damage as they adore oats and will binge on them until they become bloated and dehydrated.
They won’t be able to retreat to their hiding places meaning that birds can easily pick them off for you.