With spring in full bloom, we spend more and more time in the vegetable garden, where we’ve already planted delicacies that we want to enjoy as soon as possible. However, along with the seedlings come pests, which can wreak havoc if not combated in time.
As soon as the weather warms up, the slugs come out of their winter hiding places and can make life miserable if we don’t take action now.
A gardening expert has shared an inexpensive way to get rid of these mollusks once and for all.
Slugs, once ‘nestled’ in garden beds, are incredibly difficult to get rid of, and they proceed to literally devour our seedlings, leaving them with the bare stems. No gardener wants to experience this nightmare.
Slugs feed mostly at night, but do most of their damage during hot and humid periods, so the spring and summer months are hotbeds of slug activity – which happens to be the time of year when our cherished plants are supposed to thrive and provide valuable food.
The battle with snails is an uphill struggle, but not an impossible one, and horticultural expert Jack Sutcliffe can help with useful advice.
Beer trap against slugs
Sutcliffe claims that beer trap is one of the best ways to collect snails, costs pennies and doesn’t pollute the area with chemicals.
Place trap containers in several spots around your garden and pour a small amount of beer into them – just enough to attract the pests with its scent, which will eventually drop into the liquid.
“A beer trap is a simple and inexpensive approach to get rid of slugs. Ward off pesky slugs by pouring an inch of beer into an empty jar and then burying the jar in the ground up to its neck, leaving about an inch above the ground. Slugs are attracted to the odours and fermentation gases found in the beer, where they will crawl into the jar and drown,” explains the expert.
There is another way to repel pests, and that is to surround your vegetable garden with plants that the snails particularly hate.
Sutcliffe says this is a way to prevent slugs from getting into your garden and feasting on your plants without harming the animals.
“Remove any debris or weeds from your garden that could provide shelter for slugs. Plant slug-resistant plants such as lavender, rosemary, and marigolds. Avoid watering the garden late in the day as they thrive in these conditions and most slugs feed at night,” explains the expert.
Garlic, chives and chamomile can be added to the list of ‘anti-snail’ plants mentioned by the expert.
Garlic juice spray is also widely used to keep pests away from crops. The spray is simple to make: pour about 2 liters of water over two heads of garlic and heat until the garlic softens. Then squeeze the cloves to get more of the active ingredient into the water, filter the solution into a spray bottle and it’s ready to use.