how can i stop slugs and snails without killing them??

Question

my veggies are sooo tasty they cant resist them....i really dont want to kill them so please, no suggestions about beer traps or pellets etc! i have tried eggshells but we have trouble getting enough! is there anything they hate that they wont cross?? little buggers! cute though (the snails that is!)

Answer 1

You can buy traps that don't kill them, and then take them far away from your home - they can find their way back from quite a distance away. Perhaps find some rough ground, where there is vegetation, and leave them there. They are used as food by birds, frogs etc, so you'll be helping other wildlife populations.

Growing Success make some traps, available from alot of garden centres, and sometimes online. These don't kill, just apprehend them.

Copper tape provides a good barrier, as others have suggested, but this could prove hard for a whole vegetable patch. Growing in pots (with a band of copper tape around) can help, as long as the leaves don't hang-down to the ground, allowing slugs and snails to climb up.

The same company (Growing Success) produces dry granules that you can scatter around plants but, as with the tape, if leaves touch outside of the boundary, the snails etc. will crawl along the leaves, and over it. Munch munch. The product is a healthy additive that improves soil condition afterwards.

You could also get a pond attracting frogs, toads etc, though this may go against your wishes, not to kill them. I am ok if other natural animals eat others, as long as I haven't fed them to them.

Good luck! Rob

Answer 2

Well, I guess they are "God's little creatures", but I kill the slugs anyway just like I swat mosquitos. slugs have destroyed too much of my work.

Slug bait works, you'll never see the dead ones. Salt will deter them but will also kill your plants.

If you want to keep them (for whatever reason) go out very early in the morning after a rain or sprinkle at night so the leaves are wet. They will be easy to see on your plants, just happily chomping away. Then pick them off & do whatever.

Why on earth do you want them? If you don't get rid of them, there will be 1,000 more next year. They will completely destroy your garden if you let them multiply.

Answer 3

Some of these other answers are verging on the Utopian. Only the copper tape on pots is reliable - they get an electric shock. It's best to simply avoid the plants they like eating or buy plants big enough or enough of them for the chomping to be shared out. There are plenty of good plants they don't like. Google slug proof plants or similar phrases for lots of suggestions. Don't even look at Hostas!

Answer 4

I've read that if you make a path of gravel chips like 6-8 inches wide all the way around the garden, it should help. They don't like crossing the gravel because it irritates them. Cedar bark is also recommended.

Try this link:

http://www.wisebread.com/snail-free-gardening

Answer 5

Yes! They don't like walking across copper, and you can buy copper rings in various sizes to put around your plants on top of the soil. I bought some a year ago from this site http://www.greengardener.co.uk/
to protect some expensive new plants I had bought and they really honestly do work!

Answer 6

Try a mulch of fine gravel (the sharp kind used in aquarium tanks). It irritates their bellies and they won't cross over it. Just sprinkle it around the base of your prized plants in about a 4 inches wide circle.

Answer 7

Copper apparently gives them little shocks, but I don't know that for sure. They don't like to walk over it though and I believe you can buy copper sticky tape to put around plant pots, if that's any use.
Failing that, you could pick them up and chuck 'em next door!!!

Answer 8

try using sharp sand or fine grit as they have difficulty crossing anything that makes them produce to much slime. maybe try to encourage more birds into your garden or how about putting slate down and each morning collecting them to put some where else or go organic and collect them and eatem after you have washed them and fed them a pure diet.

Answer 9

on a similar theme of the eggshells I've heard people using red chips (stone)

Answer 10

Are you joking? Toss them over the fence. Tortoise eat them. Ducks like them. I loved them as a child.
Why not kill them, they certainly do not contribute to your Garden.