Weird Tip For Keeping Slugs Out Of Your Garden

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, there is a little creature that you are very familiar with. Long, slimy, maybe even cute in a gross kind of way…They will eat your flowers, chomp your strawberries, and simply annihilate your lettuce. I’m talking slugs! 

They love fresh green foliage, and they also love fresh (and not so fresh) fruits and vegetables. At my place I have little tiny slugs instead of the big ones I grew up with. These slugs are smaller than your pinky nail, but they come in droves. They are small, yet mighty. Don’t let their size fool you!

The Problem.

Because they are so small, they have been troublesome for me to catch. They blend in so well, and there are so many of them! I’ve tried beer traps (more on these in a minute), diatomaceous earth (works ok, but does have some drawbacks I’ll touch on later), salt (only around the outside of beds—not in soil), and even soap many years ago. These all work to a degree.

Here’s the problem: I actually love slugs and especially snails, and I felt bad killing them. I know, I know, a gardener who loves slugs is ridiculous. But I do. Also since my tiny slugs are so prolific, they are also harder to catch. So here’s what I did.

Here’s what to do.

Citrus traps! These are leftover citrus peelings from your kitchen. I do a fair amount of juicing, so I have a lot of these domed peels on hand. These work the best, because they make a little food house for the slugs. They go in to snack, and stay for the shelter.

At dusk, set these out around where you have slug problems. They are most active when things are moist, so these work great on rainy days. If it’s not rainy, you can just water when you set them out.

It’s important to go out to retrieve the peels in the early morning, while slugs are still active. When you look inside the peel, it should be filled with slugs (and often other critters, too!).

At this point you have a few options. You can kill the slugs, you can remove the slugs and save the peels to reuse, or you can toss it all away and get fresh peels for next time. Since I have a lot of peels, I usually toss the whole thing out when I relocate the slugs. (Yes, I said relocate my slugs…I usually move them far away instead of killing them).

Keep doing this until your peels come up empty, and then revisit again if your problems return.

That’s it! A cheap, easy, natural, and humane way to get the little buggers out of your garden.

A few notes about other methods…

Beer Traps: I do these occasionally. I figure at least the slugs will die happy! Get a container that’s fairly shallow, and make it like an in ground swimming pool, buried slightly in the soil. The slugs love beer and will go for a fatal last swim. Note: Save the good stuff for yourself and use your cheap beer for the slugs.

Diatomaceous Earth: This is a great way to get rid of many garden pests. It is a soft powder made from fossilized sea creatures and sedimentary rock. It is safe for humans, but deadly for pests, as it scrapes their skin and dries them out. DE is fairly inexpensive and easy to get, just make sure to get the food grade kind. 

There’s one big flaw with this method however, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. Moisture. DE needs to be dry to be effective, so you’ve got to plan accordingly. Use on sunny weeks after you’ve given your plants a good watering. Ideally you can skip watering for a few days to let it work it’s magic.

Another challenge with DE is that it can be deadly for your beneficial insects, too. So keep that in mind before you put any out.

If you’d like to try the kind I use, click here. This is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Do you have any tips for getting rid of slugs and snails? If so, I’d love to hear them!

To learn more about gardening, check out these posts.

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