How To Get Rid of Garden Slugs

At the beginning of the planting season, i was all excited after the ground had been prepared and bought a bunch of lovely seedlings and planted them straight away.

The next morning, I was met with a horrific sight ! My beautiful seedlings had more or less been all chomped up ! I posted a photo of the poor seedlings on Instagram with great sadness and it was instantly confirmed by my Instafriends that it looked like there had been an overnight slug party. Oh dear …. what to do ?

Here are some natural tips that i was given.

1, Crushed eggshells. Eggshells cut through the thick skin of slugs so they stay away from them … hopefully.

2, Ground coffee. They don’t like the smell, nor do they like crawling over it. Great deterrent.

Mix eggshells and ground coffee for a double whammy.

3, Beer bath. Apparently slugs love beer and will get into the beer bath and drink until they drown. I’d really prefer not to kill them …. but drowning in beer I guess isn’t the worst way.

I have so far only tried eggshells and ground coffee, as we already have these readily available at home but if it all goes wrong, i will head down to supermarket straight away and get some beer. Cheers !

Other tips that i haven’t tried.

4, Milk Bath. Works in the same way as beer bath.

5, Salt. Sprinkle salt on paths to stop slugs form getting to your plants. This will kill them by dehydrating them but beware sprinkling on growing areas as salt will alter soil conditions.

6, Copper ring. Copper deters slugs from going near plants.

7, Last but not least and probably the most fun for kids. Slug picking at night. Slugs come out to feed at night so head out to your vegetable garden armed with torch (or even better, a headlamp), rubber gloves, a wooden stick and a bowl with soapy water. Happy hunting.

I hope this will keep your plants safe and please do let me know if you have any other suggestions of natural ways of getting rid of slugs.