Once you have raised your chillie plants from seeds and nurtured their move outside to take advantage of the spring sunshine there is nothing more annoying than seeing your future crop decimated by slugs or snails. In just 3 or 4 nights slugs or snails can do a huge amount of damage to chilli plants as well as other plants or vegetables in your garden.
Tell tale signs or slug/snail damage
As can be seen in the below photo, the typical sign of snail damage is holes appearing in the leaves of your plants. In addition both types of mollusk prefer young tender plants. Damage also often occurs around the lower stem of plants. Not only does the damage look unsightly but it can have a serious effect on the future growth of your chilli plants.
image by SuiKa
Of course the most famous sign of snails is the slimy trail they tend to move behind. This will often give you some idea of their movements the night before. When tracking these trails it can become apparent how much ground they can cover.
Both snails and slugs tend to be nocturnal meaning that you will rarely find them during the day time. They tend to come out and feed at night when the temperature is much cooler and more humid, particularly after it has been raining. Unfortunately this means that they do most of the damage to our plants while we are sound asleep.
How to be rid of slugs and snails
1) Go picking – Head out about 2 hours after sunset armed with a torch (this is the time when mollusks are at their most active). Simply look around and remove any offenders you see. They can either be launched over your garden fence or should you prefer permanently removed!
2) The Barrier method – Mollusks are known to dislike crawling across various substances including copper, eggshells and gravel. One effective approach is to create a ring around your plants with one of these substances. This will hopefully encourage the slugs and snails to go elsewhere in search of food.
3) Encourage predators – Frogs, hedgehogs and birds all love to eat mollusks. Attracting all three to your garden by creating a small pond, nesting sites for hedgehogs and birds is a great natural approach to control these pests.
4) Slug / Snail Traps – You can create your own trap by sinking a plastic cup (or half a plastic bottle) into the ground so the rim is level with the ground and half fill with beer. Traditional beer works well (ale not lager!) or if you don’t have any beer to waste then a mix of warm water, sugar and yeast will work well. This should attract the mollusks in to drown a happy death. To be most effective you will need about 1 trap per square meter of plant beds and try to position the traps in a shady dark corner of your garden.
5) Chemical Warfare – This is perhaps the most un organic method. Slug and snail pellets do work well however they can be harmful for children or pets if consumed. In addition should birds eat the poisoned mollusks, they too can become ill. If possible opt for an organic non-metaldehyde bait.
6) Nematodes – Nematodes are a great way to see of slug problems on badly affected areas of plants. Nematodes are microscopic organisms (invisible to the naked eye) that are harmless to humans and other wildlife but deadly to slugs. They kill the slugs by introducing bacteria to the slugs that causes death. Nematodes are mixed with water prior to watering, ideally just after a rainfall in the evening (to minimize evaporation). One watering should last a few weeks. The best time to use nematodes is late spring when they breed the most and your young plants are at their most vulnerable.
The best method to control slugs and snails is…
… Use a combination of all of the methods discussed above. Be persistent and try to go out into your garden mollusk picking every night, refill beer traps regularly and ensure barriers are well maintained. If you do this you should manage to control any infestation. Try to avoid using pesticide if possible, think of it as a last resort.
If you have got any tips to help control mollusks please share them by leaving a comment below.
Salt is a great deterrent to slugs and snails, i used to put it on the outer of my raised beds. But ice cream tubs with (i found) strong larger worked best. I think they are attracted to sugary beer of any sort, i always got some. And a small few can do a lot of damage. So i also went out an hour or so after dark. And picked them off by hand. Urgh! But it works
I think I have cracked the problem! At a car boot sale I bought a string of garden lights with a light detector, lights didn’t work but the solar panels and light detector did. They sat in the garage for months.
My shed was in the process of being cleaned out and I tested it again, it still held a charge.
I stripped the plastic from the wire, wrapped the wire around my hosta plant pot the plant stayed free of enemies. I upgraded it to a 12 volt solar charger, battery and some telephone wire mostly bought at boot sales same principle, it works on pots, planters, tubs etc. And when it gets dark it does the job for you.
Use a hot glue gun to hold wire in place and don’t let them touch by between pots insulating the free wire with insulating tape.
Just try. Some still get through but it works. Keep exposed wires 1/8th to 1/4″ apart.
My chilli plants were badly eaten by slugs. I think we have solved it but will they still grow and produce chillis?
Chris,
The rate of recovery all depends on how badly the plants were eaten. If possible it might be wise to hedge yourself by planting some more or buying in some seedlings.
We have two ducks going around the garden and I have not seen one slug this year, they are really thorough!! 🙂
matt – i’d never though of ducks as snail/slug control! they sound like a good solution….free eggs too!
I too have slug issues. After messing around with various methods of control I’m fed up and now on a mission to test every garden remedy around to finally deal with these buggers. Unfortunately, most remedies don’t work: copper, coffee grounds, etc. Uou can read about my experiments here: http://amysoddities.blogspot.com/2010/09/slugs.html
Hello,
I have a hobby gardening site and have nine natural ways to get rid of snails which may interest you. There are photos and simple instructions for each solution.
http://www.sustainable-gardening-tips.com/garden-snails.html
There are many different ideas around and some work better than others depending on your climate and the design of your garden to name just a couple. At this time of year you will need to have some clever ways to stop them.
I really don’t like commercial baits as they can cause death and / or illness in other innocent pets, birds and animals.
Please have a look and choose from the nine options and try to eliminate them sustainably.
Kind regards
Robyn
(Gardener and Permaculturist)
Re your slug problem, I too have tried all slug traps, beer traps, copper etc. but then I discovered the Slug Bell and it’s brilliant. It uses conventional or organic slug pellets and the beauty is they last up to 12 weeks guarding your veg or in my case growbags 24/7 365 days. You can water the garden as per normal as the pellets are not watered down by rain, mist or frost. They are brilliant as no pets can be harmed and when they have neutralised the area in question you can simply move it to another location.
they are made of metal which last years and come in a flower design to blend in with the garden,
tabbycat – Thanks for the tip. I have not heard of slug bells before – i’ll be sure to take a look at them!