All Natural Ways to Control Slugs

Tom hates always giving up his beer to battle slugs …. Just kidding!! … Here are eight ways to stop those little critters in their tracks.

All Natural Ways To Control Slugs from The Funtime Guide.

1. Beer: Those pesky slugs hold their alcohol like a 12-year-old girl. Ideal Bite has some clever thoughts on using beer traps for natural slug control… including the “one for you, one for me” approach. Ha!

2. Egg Shells: Mother Earth News recommends crushing up egg shells and sprinkling them around your plants. Obviously the egg shells will also benefit the soil as they decompose… so they provide double the benefit.

3. Diatomaceous Earth: Diatoma what? Diatomaceous earth is basically the natural fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. Just as with egg shells, soft-bodied pests (like slugs and snails) will not crawl over it… for the same reason humans won’t walk on broken glass.

4. Sandpaper: Just as with egg shells and diatomaceous earth, rough sandpaper is too painful for the slugs to cross.

5. Citrus Rinds: Planet Green recommends using upside down halves of grapefruit rinds as a slug traps. Set them out at night and you’ll have slugs up inside them in the morning. Personally i’m not a big fan of the trapping techniques as I don’t really want to have to see and dispose of the slugs… they disgust me. Blah!

6. Seaweed: EarthEasy.com says, “If you have access to seaweed, it’s well worth the effort to gather. Seaweed is not only a good soil amendment for the garden, it’s a natural repellent for slugs. Mulch with seaweed around the base of plants or perimeter of bed. Pile it on 3″ to 4″ thick – when it dries it will shrink to just an inch or so deep. Seaweed is salty and slugs avoid salt. Push the seaweed away from plant stems so it’s not in direct contact. During hot weather, seaweed will dry and become very rough which also deters the slugs.” Be sure to check out EarthEasy’s list of natural slug repellents. You’ll find some of the same and some different methods than what we’re talking about here.

7. Organic Baits: The Weekend Gardner web magazine recommends using either Sluggo or Escar-Go. How do they work? Iron phosphate. Weekend Gardner says, “Iron phosphate is an organic compound that is found naturally in the soil, and if the bait is not consumed by a slug or snail, the material breaks down into fertilizer for your soil. Iron phosphate is not volatile, and does not readily dissolve in water, which minimizes its dispersal beyond where it is applied.”

8.Companion Planting: I didn’t know about companion planting when we planted our garden, but I’ll definitely be using it next year. Basically, certain plants planted near each other benefit each other and may also deter certain pests. Plants that deter slugs are: wormwood, rue, fennel, anise, and rosemary.