How to stop slugs eating young plants
We reveal the best ways to stop slugs and snails eating young, vulnerable plants like hostas and delphiniums.
Slugs and snails are active all year, but they're a particular problem in spring, when there's plenty of young growth for them to eat. Tell-tale signs of slug damage include irregularly-shaped holes in leaves, stems, flowers, tubers and bulbs and potatoes, and silvery slime trails.
There are many options for controlling slugs, including going out at night with a torch and bucket to pick slugs off by hand. However, if you combine a few methods, starting in spring and you should keep them under control. Protect all seedlings, new growth on most herbaceous plants, and all parts of susceptible plants, such as delphiniums and hostas.
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In this video guide, Monty Don reveals how he tackles slugs and snails, both by encouraging wildlife into the whole garden and by creating a small slug-free zone where he grows his most vulnerable young plants. Get lots of tips for getting rid of slugs and snails organically, in this short video:
Transcript
Nothing will do more to cope with slugs and snails than a really healthy ecosystem in your garden. So if you can make a pond, that does a huge amount of good. It attracts frogs and toads. Lots of hedges, shrubs and trees - that attracts blackbirds and thrushes. All these things eat slugs and snails. And healthy plants, growing strongly tend not to be attacked. They like damaged plants or young ones. Now, the young ones are where you do want to focus a bit of special attention.
This is the area where we put plants that have come from the greenhouse, are growing on under some protection with the cold frames and then are hardening out on that side. And we try to keep this area as a slug and snail-free zone and it's got hard surfaces. We use gravel, which is dry and abrasive, and they don't like that. We put down the occasional beer trap and more importantly, we check regularly - at least once a week - under every pot and container. So I suppose the moral is, put your energy into a slug-free zone, which can be quite small. Just a couple of feet by a couple of feet and use that to protect plants that really need it.
Ways to stop slugs eating young plants:
Use organic slug pellets
Pellets made from ferric phosphate are approved for use by organic growers and are just as effective as non-organic ones but less harmful to birds and other wildlife. Scatter the pellets on the soil as soon as you can before tender young growth appears.
Water in biological control
Microscopic nematodes that infect slugs with bacteria and then kill them, are an effective biological control which is watered into the soil. Apply in the evenings when the soil is warm and moist, from spring onwards.
Use copper barriers
Copper barriers are effective slug deterrents – if a slug tries to cross one it receives an 'electric shock', forcing it back. Put copper rings around vulnerable plants, or stick copper tape around the rim of pots.
Let them eat bran
Slugs love bran and will gorge on it. They then become bloated and dehydrated, and can't retreat to their hiding places, making them easy pickings for birds. Make sure the bran doesn't get wet, though.
Mulch with grit
Slugs find horticultural grit uncomfortable to travel over. Mulch around the base of plants in the ground and in pots – it looks attractive and helps keep compost moist and weeds down.
Buy horticultural grit from B & Q
Use beer traps
Make a slug trap using cheap beer – they're attracted to the smell. Do this by sinking a beer trap or container into the ground, with the rim just above soil level. Half fill with beer and the cover with a loose lid to stop other creatures falling in. Check and empty regularly.
Slug-resistant plants to grow
- Hellebores
- Astilbes
- Hardy geraniums
- Eryngiums
- Agastaches
- Penstemons
- Sidalcea
- Astrantia
- Ferns
- Ornamental grasses
- Verbena bonariensis
In the first instalment of this two-part video from 2012, Carol Klein looks at some of the plants most loved by slugs and snails, such as hosta and Kirengeshoma palmata. She also recommends some plants to grow that they're less fond of eating, such as hellebores:
In the second part of her practical video, Carol Klein recommends more plants that are resistant to slugs and snails. Her choices include astilbe, agastache and penstemon: