How To Keep The Slugs And Snails Off Your Vegetables

How To Keep The Slugs And Snails Off Your Vegetables


Slugs and snails can ravage your vegetables - so take action!

In the height of the season slugs are a real problem and can decimate your vegetable crop so you need to be really vigilant about dealing with the pesky critters.

There are lots of ways to deal with them; we are going to trial a few non-chemical methods as I know a lot of you don’t like using chemicals. We have opted for half orange skins, crushed egg shells, beer traps, fine oatmeal, coarse grit, crushed beech leaves and environmentally friendly slug pellets.

The coarse grit seemed to work the best and had the greatest longevity as some of the others quickly degraded especially after a rain shower, but all in all we managed to keep the slimy molluscs from eating our veg, unfortunately we didn't have the same result with the rabbits who munched their way through all the radish and salad leaves in one sitting!

If your garden has access routes for hedgehogs they are worth encouraging, by making a hedgehog house for them to hibernate in over winter and by putting out a little meat-based dog or cat food or chopped boiled eggs. They will do a fantastic job of eating your slugs and you will do your bit to prevent them from becoming extinct.

 


Angela Slater

Daughter of a farmer and market gardener so have always had a connection with the outdoors, whether it was keeping animals or producing fruit, vegetables and cut flowers. Along with my work at Hayes Garden World I also have a smallholding, mainly breeding rare breed pigs. I gained an HND and BSc in Conservation and Environmental Land Management, as a result I am an ardent environmentalist and have a keen interest in environmentally friendly gardening. In my time at Hayes I worked for several years in the Outdoor Plant and Houseplant areas.