How To Get Rid Of Garden Pests – Slugs

Some of my most hated garden pests are slugs. Every time when I go out in my garden and I see the little slug trails and shredded leaves on my plants, I think Yuk. The slimy little creatures cause all kinds of damage to my plants and I am not alone in hating them.

So how do you control them? There are lots of ways to control slugs However, many of them use poisons. This is simply not something that is okay at my house since I have cats in the garden and we also have wildlife that comes here. I don’t want them getting harmed.

So what are some of the other options. There are some products like Sluggo and a few other products that are non toxic to pets but which do kill slugs.

There is also the seek and destroy method which means you get up at the early in the morning and go out with a knife or a pair of garden scissors and just go snip. This can be immensely satisfying but rather time-consuming.

Another method of killing slugs is to lay down a piece of wood in the garden or a rolled up newspaper and leave it there the next morning you go out to pick it up you’re likely to see slugs on the bottom and then you can just proceed to kill the slugs. Rolled up newspaper is the same. Just open up the newspaper and proceed to kill the slugs. The benefit of using newspaper is that you also collect some earwigs and you can dispose of them at the same time.

Some people sprinkle salt on slugs then watch them foam. I don’t recommend doing this, because you’re introducing salt to the soil, which is harmful to the environment.

You have probably heard of putting beer in a small container and placing down around in the garden. It really works because the slugs love beer and just climbing in and drowned. You can also use a solution of yeast water. You do have to empty the containers every so often and make sure you don’t step in the containers as I have done.

You have also probably heard of using strips of copper on a pot to repel slugs. This does work on somewhat, however you have to make sure that the copper strips remain clean.

I use all of these methods of slug control to some degree, except for the poisons. I need to get started for this year, because my irises are getting chewed on.