With all this rain you may need to re-sprinkle some snail bait around those cabbages; or not!
For those wanting an environmentally friendly alternative consider a beer trap, eggshells, sawdust, coffee dregs or look to change your gardening maintenance regime.
As if it’s not bad enough that our cabbages are being attacked by white butterfly from the air, we have slimy critters to fend off at ground level. Our wonderful beans, peas and tender seedlings are all in the destructive path of slugs and snails.
Beer Traps
What we do know about snails and slugs is that they love yeast and will divert their attention to a nice flat lager rather than devour the vege patch. Not that beer is cheaper than water, but if you are willing to give it a go, dregs of beer (we are talking about 20ml depth in a shallow container) works a treat.
Bury a shallow container so that the soil comes up to the outside ridge (eg: a hummus pot works well). In goes the beer. In the morning you’ll need to scoop out any overnight visitors, drain the beer and start again.
- Pros: Beer Bait work well if you drink beer yourself and have some handy. You can spare the last swig or two from the can without too much sacrifice. If you want to make it even more potent, sprinkle dry yeast into the beer (bread making yeast).
- Cons: If it rains overnight, the magic is gone. Some avid gardeners will rig up a canopy over the beer trap to stop unwanted rain getting in. Unfortunately, good bugs also like beer, so if your garden is prolific with bees you may find a few unsuspecting beneficial bugs are lured towards the hops too.
Egg Shells
Hmmmmm. The jury is still out on this whether it truly works or not. The theory is snails will shred their underbellies on the sharp edges, but it doesn’t quite work that way. Unfortunately slugs have a mind of their own and will literally slime over many things to reach their tasty destination. We can only hope they don’t feel like a challenge and go elsewhere. It’s really important that you rinse the eggshells first to get rid of the white residue (slugs actually like that stuff so the whole approach could backfire otherwise). Consider egg shells as a barrier (just as copper wire, hair clippings, sawdust and anything abrasive can help slow them down).
- Pros: Egg shells release calcium slowly into the soil.
- Cons: Other than not being convinced they really work, egg shells don’t compost. In order to have any hope as a deterrent they need to be crushed but not to a fine powder. Sharp shell edges support the theory for snail shredding but you may jab yourself if you use bare hands in the vege patch.
Coffee Grounds
- Pros: Often cafes give bags of coffee grounds away for free! Worms love coffee grounds (a little treat I give the worm farm every now and then). Grounds are also good for the garden as a mulch.
- Cons: Again, just a barrier but not an absolute deterrent.
What else?
You can use a combination of deterrents, including:
- a good garden maintenance regime: remove low leaves that drape on the ground (all of which are perfect ground cover for slugs and snails)
- set up snail hotels away from the prize cabbages: while not a trap, these hotels are even more inviting than the cabbages and can divert their attention long enough to scoop them up in the morning and discard them. Some suggestions: place an upside-down pot (propped open by a stone so they can crawl under); place a squeezed grapefruit or orange half skin side up (slugs love the taste and the smell and are said to crawl under the fruit to investigate); or place an old plank or black polythene on the ground (snails and slugs love to hide under dark cover and will be waiting their for you in the morning).
- don’t water late at night: while tempting (as we are told not to water in the heat of the day), slugs and snails are most active at night and particularly love damp places. I have read by several sources that by watering in the morning it can help decrease snail activity by as much as 80%!
Let me know if you have any luck yourself, or have any slug and snail baiting tips!
