Slugs may destroy your young plants or ripen fruits within a few days if you do not keep them out of your garden. You may either use chemical pesticides or natural traps to control the population of slugs. However, natural ways are preferable as those are less harmful to the environmental ecosystem.
This blog post will go over the life cycle of slugs, their behavior, and the technique of organically controlling them. We are confident that after reading this post, you will be able to quietly rescue your garden from the devastating actions of slugs.
What Are Slugs?
Slugs are snails that don’t have shells. They’re slimy and squishy. Slugs prefer cool, wet regions with shade, which they can find from spring to October. They eat new plant leaves and stems (particularly seedlings), maturing fruits and vegetables.
Are The Slugs Always Harmful?
Slugs are always not a bad thing, however. They eat garden detritus and turn it into nitrogen-rich compost like composting worms.
A serious infestation, on the other hand, can kill your vegetation in a week. As a result, it’s critical to keep the slug population under control and out of your plants.
In the following post, we’ll go over some of the best techniques to keep slugs out of your garden. You can select one or more choices to determine the optimum path.
The Life Cycle Of Slugs:
The life cycle of a slug typically starts with the laying of eggs in the soil or other moist areas. These eggs hatch into small, immature slugs known as juveniles.
Juvenile slugs go through several stages of growth before reaching adulthood. During this time, they feed on plant material and other organic matter.
Once they reach maturity, slugs mate and lay eggs, starting the cycle over again. The time it takes for a slug to reach maturity varies depending on the species and environmental factors such as temperature and food availability. Slugs are able to reproduce year-round in warm, humid environments, and can lay hundreds of eggs in a single season.
Overall, the life cycle of a slug can range from several months to several years, depending on the species and environmental conditions.
Understanding The Behavior Of Slugs:
To comprehend slug behavior, we must examine their feeding patterns, preferred environment, and evidence of harm caused by them. Let’s look at the analysis briefly below-
A. Feeding habits of slugs:
Slugs are herbivorous and feed on a wide range of plant material, including leaves, stems, roots, and fruit. They prefer tender, young plants and can cause significant damage in a short period of time. Slugs are nocturnal and feed mostly at night, leaving behind irregularly shaped holes and slime trails.
B. Preferred environments for slugs:
Slugs thrive in moist, humid environments and are most active during warm and wet weather. They are commonly found in gardens, where they hide in the soil, under mulch, or in other moist areas. Slugs also prefer shady areas, as direct sunlight can dry out their skin.
C. Signs of slug damage:
The most obvious sign of slug damage is the presence of irregularly shaped holes in leaves and other plant tissue. Slugs may also eat through the outer layers of stems or fruit, leaving behind a slimy trail. In severe cases, entire plants can be destroyed by slug feeding. Additionally, the slime trails left behind by slugs can be unsightly and attract other pests.
5 Natural Ways To Keep Slugs Out Of Garden
Because slugs aren’t entirely evil and provide food for some beneficial predators, we must consider the environment when eliminating them. As a result, using natural methods to keep the slugs at bay will be preferable.
Let’s have a look at the five natural or organic methods for keeping slugs out of your yard.
Repel Them By Hand
Picking slugs with your hand is the simplest way to repel them. This approach can be useful if the infestation is not too severe. You’ll also need a positive mindset and a lot of patience to pick out those sticky critters with your hand.
What you need to do is go out with a lamp just after dusk, take those slimes off your plants, and either destroy them with soap water or keep them in a position where birds or snakes may readily consume them.
Create Barrier To Their Paths
Slugs are slimy, squishy insects that dislike crawling over anything irritating or sharp, such as crushed eggshells, wood chips, sand, gravels, coffee ground, and so on. By placing those materials in slugs’ routes, you can establish a barrier between them and the plants. To get a satisfactory result, you can also use diatomaceous earth (DE) for this process.
Another effective barrier-building method is a copper wire or tape. You can encircle the plant with copper wire. Slugs who try to pass will receive a mild electric shock, which is rather irritating for them.
Build A Healthy Ecosystem
Slugs are good food for many predators like frogs, snakes, birds, beetles, and so on. If you can provide a conducive environment for the predators to thrive in, you can get rid of slugs as well as get other benefits from them.
For example, if you plant hedges, shrubs (particularly those with berries), and small trees, you can attract slug-eating blackbirds, robins, or thrushes. These birds also can help in the pollination process.
Plant Trap Crop To Keep The Slugs Away
Planting slugs’ favorite plant, marigold, is another natural technique to deter them. This allows you to keep all slugs in one area and quickly repel them.
Beer Trap To Get Rid of Slugs
It’s one of the most popular and cost-effective slug-removal methods. Slugs are lured by the yeast in beer. If you bury an empty can in the ground and fill it with beer, the slugs will fall into the can and die by getting attracted to the beer fragrance.
However, it may harm other useful insects, such as beetles. As a result, you should create a beer trap only when the infestation is severe.
Takeaways
We hope the tips above will assist you in keeping slugs out of your garden.
In addition to the natural methods, slugs can be deterred using insecticides such as iron phosphate. However, you should only use chemical pesticides when the infestation is quite severe.