Nothing beats having a vibrant green home garden, as any garden enthusiast can tell you. Unfortunately, a flourishing garden attracts a slew of pesky pests.
When you’re out checking or watering your garden, you may notice that certain unwanted visitors are causing havoc.
When you look closely, you can see a gleaming slimy trail they’ve left behind. Yes, you guessed it correctly. Snails are the pests that are ruining your garden.
Do you have a problem with these slimy pests? Here are nine natural methods for getting rid of snail infestations. Let’s get started without further ado, shall we?
Ways on how to get rid of snail pests
1. Snails should be hand-picked
Individual snails should be picked up and placed far away from your garden as a first step toward completely eliminating snails from your yard or home garden.
But how would it aid in the eradication of these pests? You are free to inquire. To begin with, did you know that a single snail may lay up to 80 eggs at the same time?
Picking them up and moving them somewhere else will ensure that they do not settle on your plants and lay eggs, preventing them from spreading.
When they are most active, either in the morning or evening, is the greatest time to do so.
2. Make a snail barrier
The fragile and vulnerable body of a snail is what allows it to move around.
Most people are unaware that you may utilize this to your advantage by erecting barriers around your garden to prevent them from accessing and eating your plants.
The good news is that the majority of the materials you can utilize as barriers are there in front of you.
Eggshell fragments, rough wood chips, abrasive gravel, copper tape, diatomaceous earth, broken glass, trimmed twigs, and coffee shells, to mention a few, can all act as effective snail barriers.
3. Consider erecting snail fences.
Another efficient technique to keep these slimy pests out of your plants is to use this method.
Copper mesh or tape is the best material to use as a fence because the ions in copper metal react negatively with the ions and proteins in the snail’s slime, causing an electrical shock.
However, before erecting the fence, inspect your garden for snails or eggs and remove them to avoid keeping them inside and enabling them to continue harming your garden.
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4. They won’t be able to hide if you don’t give them a place to hide.
Snails, like other pests, try to blend into the background.
Unfortunately, most of the items in your yard, such as garden furniture, logs, bricks, decomposing leaves, and weeds, serve as cozy hideouts for these snails.
Attempt to remove any rotting leaves, plants, or weeds as much as possible.
Cutting back on the ground covering in your flower beds or young plants is also a good way to keep your garden free of snails.
5. Water your garden first thing in the morning.
It may appear time-consuming, but I assure you that it will be worthwhile.
Watering your plants first thing in the morning permits the water to evaporate during the heat hours of the day, creating an unwelcoming environment for these slimy bugs.
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6. Make snail traps.
Snails are no exception, and setting up traps is a very effective approach to get rid of them.
The good news is that you can make wonderful traps out of almost anything you have around the house.
Beer is one of them. Yes, you are not the only one who enjoys a good beer. This is one of the most effective organic methods for eliminating these pests.
Snails are attracted to the fragrance of beer. Try digging shallow trenches near your plants, filling them with beer, and then sitting back and watching them fall in.
You don’t have to continually emptying the container because the staler the container gets, the better. Cabbage leaves, plywood, and boulders are also good traps.
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7. Why don’t you invite some new creatures to visit your garden?
Inviting other creatures into your garden can sometimes be the most effective way to keep these creepy crawlers from wrecking it.
Snail predators include frogs, hedgehogs, and birds. As a result, do everything you can to make your yard ideal for either of these creatures, and you will be bidding these snails goodnight.
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8. Deploy plants that they despise.
Snails are infamous for chewing down plants and eventually destroying them, but the good news is that they don’t eat everything.
Snails dislike plants that are thick and difficult to chew, such as ferns, euphorbias, lavender, rosemary, and hydrangeas, to name a few.
To ensure that the treatment works, put one of these plants around your yard to keep the snails away from your plants.
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9. Increase the number of nematodes in your soil.
There are certainly millions of them already in the soil, so adding more to your garden wouldn’t hurt.
Nematodes are microscopic organisms that live in your soil. Snails are parasitized by these microbes.
They either patiently wait for their host underground or use a carbon dioxide mechanism to track them down. They subsequently adhere to their hosts and unleash toxin-producing bacteria, killing them.
You don’t need to be concerned because they are completely harmless to your plants. Sponge, gel, dried granules, or clay are the most common forms of nematodes.
Because they thrive in moist soil, it’s advisable to water your garden after you’ve planted the nematodes.
Any damage to your hard-won garden can be upsetting, especially if the harm was caused by these slow but unexpectedly destructive insects.
Thankfully, you can get rid of these snail pests organically if you have these tactics in your pocket.
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