Pest Management - Organic Slug & Snail Control

  Organic Slug & Snail Control Your Garden 

They are tricky and they are slim, they make your plants crisp and you want them to die at the right time ... snail family! Can you say that Halloween is in the corner? Like ghosts and giants, snails and snails do their best work at night - and can be very scary for gardeners! If you see shiny mucus pathways, decapitated seedlings, and holes in the leaves, it looks like you have a terrible snail problem. The good news is that snails and snails are very easy to organize. No need to get weird!

About snails and snails

Snails and snails are common and disgusting garden pests. They are especially widespread in climates with adequate humidity or humidity and exhibit peak activity during the wet seasons of the year. Even in the drier months, a well-watered garden provides a major habitat for snails and snails! During the day, snails and snails hide in dense bushes, leaf piles, under trees, or in other wet and dark places. They can survive in freezing conditions if they disappear enough. At night, they emerge and feed!

Snails and snails are part of the mollusk family of animals - with clams, octopuses, scallops, oysters, squids, and chitons. The primary difference between snails and snails is the hard outer shell for snail protection. Snails and snails are also classified as ‘gastropods’, i.e. stomach and leg. That description could not be more appropriate, as the insects in this garden suck everything in their path while sliding on the muscle foot! In addition to being ferocious eaters, snails and snails reproduce rapidly. If their population is not controlled, they can wreak havoc on your garden.

Plant snails and snails are attracted

Snails and snails are not eaters. They eat fresh and rotting stuff, and they look like any delicate herb you can find in the garden. However, lettuce, cabbage, young seedlings, strawberries, beans, zucchini, cucumber, peppercorns, basil, and other leafy greens seem to be snail favorites.

Many flowers and ornamental plants are very attractive to snails and snails. Soft fresh sprouts or leaves in contact with the soil or mulch layer are particularly easy targets, although snails and snails slip into tall plants to feed on soft lush new growth.

What do they not like?

In general, snails and snails avoid harsh, thorny, bitter, and/or highly fragrant plants such as rosemary, cadmium, and lavender. Apparently, they are not big fans of ferns, geraniums, columbine, hydrangea, euphorbia, yucca, wormwood, begonias, or Japanese anime. If you are struggling with snails and snail control in your ornamental garden, choosing less desirable plants may be the easy solution!

How snails and snails damage plants

The first sign of the presence of snails in your garden is the silvery, thin path of mucus they leave. When they feed on plants, snails and snails chew large holes in the leaves. The holes are usually irregular in shape and appear in the middle or around the edges of the leaves. In established large plants, the snail does not cause damage to the outer leaves - but the plant will usually bounce back. However, if snails and snails eat the central part of the plant where the new growth occurs (also called the terminal bud), it can completely stop plant growth.

Young tender sprouts and seedlings are especially at risk, and they can be fully consumed overnight! Insufficient numbers, snails, and snails can take the whole bed of sprouted or newly planted seedlings. Unfortunately, you can not recover from that damage ... which is why it is so important to keep snails or snails under control in your garden and to prepare and plant tools and strategies to manage them. Time!

1) Reduce snail and snail habitat

We had tons of snails in our garden! They lived in a large ice plant located on the side of our large walkway and were on the edge of our front yard about 10 feet from our tall garden bed. Every night, they would flock from the ice plant to our garden. We removed the ice plant to expand the front yard (it was aggressive and confusing anyway!) And our snail problem was gone.

Now, this option is not possible for all situations. But if there are thick bushes or other snail hotspots near your garden area, take steps to thin them out. Remember, snails like to hide in moist, dark places during the day. Your choice of mulch can also make a difference. For example, a deep fluffy bed of straw or leaves is more suitable for snails than compost or thin bark mulch. Eliminating those kinds of micro-environments close to your soft foods can help eliminate snails and snails.

2) Create distractions

An alternative to reducing habitat is to create a designated ‘sacrifice bed’ for snails and snails. Plant some of your favorite things in one place (listed above) from plants you believe will protect you. What you do after that is yours. Let them run into the wild in their ‘new’ area, but keep in mind that they will only increase in number. Or, you can use the sacrificial space as a trap - then you can use the other snails and snail control methods listed below in a concentrated area.

3) Use drip irrigation

Minimize overhead irrigation and sprinkler irrigation and switch to drip irrigation as much as possible. The less water is available or stagnant on the surface of the plants and soil, the better! Drip irrigation provides water directly to soil level or even under mulch. Even better, try using drip irrigation near sunrise, rather than in the evening when snails and snails are most active. Like the first number above, this tip reduces the desirable habitat for snails and snails. Not to mention, drip irrigation is more efficient and sustainable than overhead irrigation anyway!

Clearly, this organic snail control system does not have much impact on areas with regular rainfall throughout the year. But with extended dry weather like ours, it can make a big difference! Imagine, by the time we removed the ice plant from our driveway area, we had removed the last part of our front lawn and replaced the traditional sprayers. No more snails!

4) Manual collection at night

Manual collection or hand-picking is the simplest, most effective, and organic way to get rid of snails or snails. After a wet evening or watering, after an hour or two in the dark, go outside with a flashlight or headlamp. Look around the plants or areas where you usually see evidence of snail damage. Chances are, you can find many - even dozens!

Collect snails or snails and place them in a bucket or trash bag. Then, you can move them or discard them. It's yours. One way to kill snails and snails during manual collection is to drop them in a bucket of warm soapy water. Or, a container with salt - it will kill them. In plain cold water, they simply come out. Play safely and wear gloves to collect snails and snails. Some species carry parasites and pathogens that are harmful to humans.

We cover the collected snails in a bucket overnight and feed our chickens the next day. I later learned that snails, snails, crabs, and earthworms can carry roundworm and cap-worn parasites that are harmful to chickens. Our females eat a lot of insects and worms because they are naturally foddered in our backyard, but I will no longer collect those items to feed them in large quantities.

5) Cloches & Collars

You can use a variety of body barriers to prevent snails and snails from accessing your plants, including the closet and collar. Clocks are small domes that go above small plants that can prevent garden pests and protect them from frost. These are great for protecting small seedlings against snails and snails, especially as insects cannot crawl on top of them. You can buy pre-made gloves or make DIY clutches from used plastic 2-liter bottles or milk jugs. Keep in mind that plastic clocks can generate more heat and condensation inside (like mini-greenhouses) so avoid using them on hot days.

Like clocks, collars can block access to individual plants from insects that roam the soil surface. Collars can be made from plastic bottles (can be cut into rings) by cutting the bottom of used yogurt or cheese containers or any other material you can grow around the bottom of the bottle.

Snails and snails generally choose the path of low resistance so they can be prevented from coming across the collar. But since the collars are open at the top, they are more likely to simply crawl upwards. Collars with a large lip or fringe create additional restraint, and they are usually very effective. For more snail control and protection you can line the edge of a collar with Vaseline or copper tape, as explained below!

6) Copper tape

Snails and snails do not like to crawl all over the copper. When they do, it produces a biochemical reaction that is unpleasant to them (like electric shock), so they are usually blocked and returned. Therefore, wrapping copper tape around the base of plants, the edges of pots, raised beds and safety collars or tree trunks can prevent snails and snail access. Thin strips of copper are not effective because they can scoop up quickly and stretch it. Wide strips of semblance (like this!) Are very effective for snails and snail control.

7) Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous Earth, also known as DE, is made from ancient fossil phytoplankton - also known as diatoms. For humans and pets, it feels like soft silk powder (although dangerous when inhaled) and is commonly used in food, cosmetics, and filtration systems. When in contact with small garden pests, tiny diatoms act like tiny pieces of glass and cause decay. Those small cuts will eventually lead to death by drought - or drying out. DE does not work against all garden pests. An exoskeleton is very effective in killing small insects such as ears, insects, ants, millipedes, cockroaches, crickets, centipedes, and tablet bugs.

Truth be told, I read paradoxical things about how DE is good at killing snails or snails. Closing their dense mucus provides decent protection. DE does not kill earthworms for the same reason. But tests show they definitely want to crawl it and avoid it when encountered! Accordingly, dusting the food-quality wide ring on the soil surface around the perimeter of the plants or garden bed can prevent snails and snails. It works best when the fly is dry because it is temporarily useless when it is wet.

8) Encourage nature hunters

Snails and snails contain many natural predators, including chickens, ducks, geese, rats, opossums, raccoons, toads, hedgehogs, ground beetles, snakes, turtles, and birds. Promoting a variety of native wildlife in your yard can often help balance the number of insects naturally ranging from insects to snails! Heck, if you have opossum you know, you can try to eat some snails you have collected. Opossum also eats rodents, so they are good friends around the garden. To learn more about creating a wildlife-friendly yard, see this article: "How to turn your yard into a certified wildlife habitat"

9) Sluggo

Sluggo is a man-made product used to kill snails and snails. It is OMRI-listed, which means it is considered safe and suitable for use in culinary organic gardens. The primary active ingredient in Slacco is iron-phosphate, which is safe for use by children, pets, and wildlife. Studies show that beetles and earthworms are not adversely affected by iron phosphate, even at concentrations twice the permissible limit, according to the National Pesticide Information Center. This is not possible because bee exposure is used.

Organic or not, I recommend trying the other slug and snail control methods on this list before achieving anything artificial. If you want to use slack, spray small white particles around problem areas - under the bushes or plants, or focus on the areas they need to cross to get to your garden. Snails and snails are drawn to it and eat it, then lose their appetite and stop eating completely. It is best to use Slugo when the weather forecast for a few days is without rain, as it begins to deteriorate as soon as it is completed. When the particles break down, the iron doubles as compost for your garden.

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