Best Way to Keep Slugs Out of Garden?

[steve bossie]

i gotta try copper! i have ALOT of slugs that get into my mushroom beds and wreak havoc! good idea! wonder why they don't like copper?

 

[remnant]

The best way to keep slugs out of your garden is setting a trap using beer. A bowl is inserted into the soil and beer poured in. Slugs will be attracted to the beer and will drown in the process.

 

[steve bossie]

I've killed a lot w/ the beer but i have a lot of slugs. too many to get with traps. maybe a combo of the 2 ?

 

[Beverly]

I am counting on copper tubing to keep the slugs and snails from eating everything in their path. Last year they ate just about everything the leaf-cutter ants didn't eat. It may be a relatively expensive option at the beginning, but needs no maintenance, doesn't need replenishing, and it is a wonderfully organic option that should last forever. See @Greenhorn posts above, who uses this method and is the one who originally recommended it, and gives instructions. Last year i put collars of aluminum foil around the seedlings and the slugs did not cross the foil and did not eat the plants. But, it can be tedious (not to mention too late) and the tubing can protect entire areas. I bought some copper tubing today along with connectors, elbows, and a pipe cutter to come up with the dimensions i'll need. I will protect the most vulnerable parts of my small garden using copper tubing and if they head to other parts of the garden, i'll use aluminum collars at the base of the plants they may take a fancy to eat. Check Greenhorn's posts above in this thread for details to see if this method would be a good solution for you. The slugs will not cross the barrier, but if we wait too long to install the copper, we'll be keeping them "in" instead of "out" so i am going to try to get my installation done in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Beverly]

Inspired by @Greenhorn and his copper tubing idea to keep slugs and snails out of the garden, i have completed my first installation. Firstly, i wanted to protect the Plumbago. It was so easy, and where i live, the copper is economical. I do wonder if aluminum would work just as well. Last year i used aluminum foil around some seedlings and the slugs who were getting fat on just about everything in the garden did not cross the aluminum foil. Anyway, i have copper and it should last forever. The great thing is it can be made any size you want. Here are some photos of my first installation, the tool i used to cut the copper tubing which is 1/2", and the resulting cut.

The Plumbago should become quite large. It was recently transplanted in its current location

This simple tool is a pipe cutter and will cut copper, aluminium, PVC, and maybe something i left out. It is quick and easy to use. The rollers allow the pipe to be circulated while the cutting edge on top follows the groove. With 3 or 4 effortless turns around, the pipe is cut. It is so quick and easy.

And, the cutting wheel gives you a nice clean edge for attaching elbows, extensions, and other connector options. Now i have some seedlings i want to protect, so that area will be next.

So thank you Greenhorn for this wonderful idea. I like this option for so many reasons and as the garden is reconfigured the copper installations can be modified to suit the changes. It would be interesting to experiment with PVC tubing, and aluminum to see if they work equally well.

 

[Greenhorn]

Nice Job !
I think you will be happy with the results.

 

[Icecold]

slugs don't harm a healthy garden.

it's easy to remove them, either make sure there's no humid spots for them to hide or lure more birds into your yard.

alternatively, own chickens.

 

[Beverly]

@Icecold Ah, well i see you don't live in the tropics where humidity is a way of life and where there is so much vegetation it is close to impossible to find a slug. Of course the slugs are easy to remove if you can find them. There are many people who can't own chickens, ducks, or geese due to city ordinances and not sufficient space, etc. Last year, the slugs ate all my seedlings and i had practically no garden at all. I did put collars of aluminum foil around some seedlings and managed to save a few dahlias. I have a healthy organic garden but the slugs mowed me down anyway. As for birds, they apparently prefer earthworms which are in abundance in the garden. Still it is nice to know that slugs are not a problem for some people.

 

[Icecold]

don't put plants in your garden until they're established.

 

[aquaticneko]

Copper is a great suggestion. diatomaceous earth is also another great one that you can just sprinkle over your plants as well. That and lime also works.

 

[Beverly]

I agree with the Diatomaceous earth (DE) @aquaticneko and am now using the copper tubing for slugs and snails and DE for the leaf-cutter ants which can be incredibly destructive. DE is also beneficial for the soil. I use DE selectively and carefully because i have butterfly host plants and frequently have little caterpillars running around. But, the leaf-cutter ants come in the night, and the caterpillars are eating during the night and staying on their host plant. So i can put the DE down during the night for the leaf-cutters and can wash it away during the times there may be caterpillars roaming. So far, between the DE and the copper, i've taken care of my most destructive pests while protecting the caterpillars, I also have a solution of water, dish soap, cinnamon oil, and clove oil (a few drops of each oil per liter) that i use as a spray, again carefully and selectively.

 

[Beverly]

Probably everyone concerned about slugs in the garden already knows this but me. Anyway, i did some reading about slugs, how they reproduce, when they produce, where is one likely to find the eggs, etc. I discovered that slugs lay between 20-100 eggs in clusters several times a season under the surface of the soil and eggs can lay dormant for several years waiting for conditions to be right for hatching. This means that slugs can still pop up inside copper-tubing protected areas and/or if you think they are gone, the are probably not really. This doesn't mean that i am not happy with my copper tubing method of slug avoidance, but it does mean to not become too confident. So now i know that my freshly planted, copper-tubing protected areas are still vulnerable and that i should continue to be diligent looking out for potential slugs, disturbing unplanted areas in the hopes of disturbing egg clusters, etc. in the hopes of catching and removing the immature slugs and or egg clusters before they mate or hatch respectively.

 

[Beth_B]

The problem with beer...is while indeed it kills unwitting slugs, it also ATTRACTS them. So you wind up attracting a lot more slugs than you then have to kill...

I haven't tried the copper option but the last couple of years here have been very rainy so tons of slugs. Coarse sandpaper (like from flooring jobs) also works as a mechanical barrier. Slugs won't cross it to get to the plants. It really helped last year.

Another option is diatomaceous earth, quite inexpensive although it does need to be reapplied after rain or watering.

 

[CrazyConure]

Heavily mulch, and introduce frogs into garden. I don't have anymore snails in my garden, and we have tons of frogs.

 

[Beverly]

This is a continuation of a conversation started in "What's Looking Good in April 2017"
https://www.gardening-forums.com/threads/whats-looking-good-in-april-2017.11040/page-4
The thread is a continuation of one started in February 2016 and already has some good ideas in the first 2 pages.
This is a photo of Agastache seedlings being protected from slugs using aluminum foil. Generally i use copper tubing (see @Greenhorn posts above), but when i have a small planting tin foil is what i use and i have had good luck with this: