Organic Gardening Slug Control

The Trouble with Slugs

There are about 40 different kinds of slugs in the United States, but the most common is known as the garden slug. Although they are usually just about an inch long, they can do a lot of damage to your garden plants.

Slugs can damage the roots as well as the foliage of garden plants. They seem to be especially fond of new growth found in damp places. Some of their favorite treats are hostas, marigolds, lettuce and any new growth or seedlings.

Physical Approaches to Organic Gardening Slug Control

A good way to practice organic gardening slug control is to put measures in place to keep slugs away from your plants beginning early in the season.

First, if you have the opportunity to cultivate or till your garden in the spring, do so. This can help kill off the slug eggs that are hanging out in your soil. When you plant your seedlings, take a plastic bottle such as a milk jug or two-liter bottle of soda, cut the top off and "plant" the bottle around your seedling. This makes it harder for the slugs to get to your plants.

If you mulch your plants, make sure that the mulch is not right up against your plants. The mulch is a damp environment slugs will like and mulching too close to the plants gives them easy access to the good stuff. Weeding regularly will help break up soil clumps that slugs like to hang out it and may be effective at reducing your populations.

You can also use lava rock to surround the garden as a physical barrier that slugs find it difficult to move through. Using cedar or oak bark or gravel chips also makes a dehydrating environment that slugs don't like.

More Slug Control Options

If you already have slugs in your garden, there are many different organic gardening slug control options you can try.

• Powdered ginger: Sprinkle ginger as a barrier or use all over to irritate slugs.
• Beer: Put a little beer (Budweiser is fine, though not itself organic) into a cup and bury it, leaving the rim of the cup about an inch above the ground. Slugs are attracted to the smell and will fall into the cup and drown.
• Lime: Put a sprinkle of lime around your plants. It is thought that slugs like acidic soil, so adding lime will make it less attractive to them. Make sure your plants can survive in a more alkaline soil environment before you do this.
• Hair: Adding human, dog or horse hair around your plants is an effective deterrent because the slugs get tangled up in the hair. It's a little gross, though.
• Salt: We all know that putting salt directly on a slug will kill it, but putting Epsom salt around plants also seems to keep slugs away and should not harm the plants.
• Builder's sand: This type of sand is sharp, so it tears up the slugs' bodies when they try to climb over it.
• Get a frog: Frogs, toads, turtles, lizards, salamanders, garter snakes and several kinds of beetles will eat slugs.

If all else fails, and if you are vigilant about looking for slugs in the garden, you can physically remove them from your garden when you see them. If you can't stand the idea of touching slugs, even with gloves on, try removing them with chopsticks. You can then kill them by stomping on them, or try the beer trick (you could also use a bucket of water since you're not trying to lure them) if you're too timid to squish them yourself.