Organic Snail and Slug Control
Nothing is more frustrating than heading out into the garden and seeing your seedlings and plants chewed up by snails and slugs. With just one night’s of feasting, the slimy pests can devastate a newly planted vegetable garden. Fortunately, gardeners have organic options in control that aren’t toxic to the surrounding ecosystem.
What Exactly is a Snail and Slug?
Believe it or not, but snails and slugs belong in the mollusk family. The main difference between the two is the slug doesn’t have the spiral external shell that snails do. Both use their muscular foot to glide along and this muscle secretes a slimly substance. When this substance dries, it leaves the silvery trail you will notice on foliage.
Both snails and slugs are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both female and male sexual parts. Snails lay approximately 80 white, roundish eggs at a time into …show more content…
It’s thought that the copper somehow interacts with the slime, disrupting the pest’s nervous system. When placing the copper around the plants, make sure it is at least 11-cm tall so you can bury a few centimeters into the soil so the snail and slug can’t tunnel under it.
If you are protecting plants inside a container, you can wrap the outside of the container in copper foil. Make sure you don’t have any snails or slugs hiding inside the container or the copper foil won’t work.
Another organic barrier option is creating a barrier using diatomaceous earth. Spread the substance around the plants you are protecting to repel the slugs and snails. If the substance gets wet, you will have to sprinkle a fresh layer in the area.
If you see one snail or slug you are bound to have a bunch more but don’t give up hope. By making the garden less hospitable and using the various methods of trapping and repelling, you should have your slimy problem under control in no
Nothing is more frustrating than heading out into the garden and seeing your seedlings and plants chewed up by snails and slugs. With just one night’s of feasting, the slimy pests can devastate a newly planted vegetable garden. Fortunately, gardeners have organic options in control that aren’t toxic to the surrounding ecosystem.
What Exactly is a Snail and Slug?
Believe it or not, but snails and slugs belong in the mollusk family. The main difference between the two is the slug doesn’t have the spiral external shell that snails do. Both use their muscular foot to glide along and this muscle secretes a slimly substance. When this substance dries, it leaves the silvery trail you will notice on foliage.
Both snails and slugs are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both female and male sexual parts. Snails lay approximately 80 white, roundish eggs at a time into …show more content…
It’s thought that the copper somehow interacts with the slime, disrupting the pest’s nervous system. When placing the copper around the plants, make sure it is at least 11-cm tall so you can bury a few centimeters into the soil so the snail and slug can’t tunnel under it.
If you are protecting plants inside a container, you can wrap the outside of the container in copper foil. Make sure you don’t have any snails or slugs hiding inside the container or the copper foil won’t work.
Another organic barrier option is creating a barrier using diatomaceous earth. Spread the substance around the plants you are protecting to repel the slugs and snails. If the substance gets wet, you will have to sprinkle a fresh layer in the area.
If you see one snail or slug you are bound to have a bunch more but don’t give up hope. By making the garden less hospitable and using the various methods of trapping and repelling, you should have your slimy problem under control in no