How to deal with snails in your garden?

Noticed that snails and slugs are damaging your plants?
While most of us understand that snails are part of the natural world, that doesn’t mean we want to share space with them. After all, snails are slimy, ugly, and destructive enough to harm your lawn and garden.

What Attracts Snails to my House & Yard?

If you have a snail problem, the first step is to figure out what caused it. Like any pest, snails are probably seeking two things when they appear on your property: food and shelter.

Because of their slimy, moist bodies, snails thrive in environments that shelter them from the heat of the sun. They’re active on foggy, overcast, or rainy days,  and will feed on a variety of plants in the yard or garden.

What do snails eat?

Snails eat organic matter, including a wide variety of living plants and decaying wood, crops, and plant leaves. Snails will also eat crops and  flowers, and are particularly fond of the basil

beans, cabbage, dahlia, lettuce, various vegetables and herbs.

How to Make My Garden Less Attractive for Snails and Slugs?

After finding out what attracts snails to your outdoor space, it should be easier to understand how to make your garden less attractive to them:

1. Allow your soil to dry between waterings

If your plants don’t require frequent watering and moist to wet soil to thrive, it’s best to avoid watering them too often.

2. Mow the lawn

Snails and slugs also like to hide in tall grass. Make sure you mow the lawn frequently to keep it short and trim.

3. Protect your essential greens with other plants

Choose some plants that you don’t mind being damaged by snails and slugs. There are called “trap” plants. They attract these pests to them, keeping your important greens protected from the damage.

4. Choose highly-scented plants and plants that attract predators 

Slugs and snails don’t like highly-scented plants like lavender or rosemary to be near their food sources. Choose plants that have a strong scent and plant them near the greens you want to protect, and ones that encourage birds, ground beetles, snakes, turtles, or squirrels to visit your garden.

5. Cover your garden beds with layers of gravel, bark, and wood chips

Snails and slugs don’t like to have to struggle to slide their way over an uneven surface. So, covering your garden beds with such materials will help lower the chances for your plants to be eaten by these pests.

6. Add copper to your garden

When snails touch copper, they feel something similar to an uncomfortable electrical shock that makes them stay away from that area. You can use adhesive copper tape to surround your garden. Simply run the tape along the edges of your garden beds, or throw around some copper pennies near the plants you want to protect.

7. Sprinkle broken eggshells on the ground

Broken eggshells have sharp edges that will hurt snails and slugs if they try to slide over them. Sprinkle eggshells around your plants to prevent these pests from crawling their way to them. Broken eggshells will also be beneficial to your plants, because they add nutrients to your soil.

8. Prepare a homemade solution that wards off snails and slugs

You can prepare a homemade solution to keep these pests away using garlic and water or cold coffee. Pour it in a spray bottle and mist your plants with the mix.

Now that you know more about how to control snails in your garden, you can make sure that those slimy little buggers never bother your plants again!