How do I get rid of snails and slugs other than gravel and copper tape. (It must be humane.)?
Answers:
We have had a hedgehog in the garden so I couldn't use slug pellets.
I put a dish of cat food down for the hedgehog every night and before going to bed would check to see if the hedgehog had come yet.
And every night the dish is full of snails and slugs, it attracts them like wildfire, then the hedgehog can eat them as well as the food.
Salt.. they won't go near it. My mother pours a line of salt around the garden to keep them away.
mothballs
pour salt on them
Salt and mothballs will work, also crushed shells. Put a 3 to 6 inch layer of sawdust around your plant beds. The sawdust will get dry and they won't cross it (they dehydrate quickly). In the winter when the weather is more damp put boards over the sawdust to walk on and the slugs and snails won't cross them and they won't lay eggs under the boards because the sawdust will be too dry.
place baby powder around your plants and on the leaves,, its more humane,,, u have to reapply after rain
you could bury a bowl to the lip and fill with beer. they drown happy. that's a humane way to go.
Lime granules. This not only is beneficial for your garden (as long as its not in direct contact with plants, but in the pathways and water ways), but it will sink into the soil and burn them out.
Also, for slugs, you can set out pie pans full of beer! (Yep, tried this one, and it works!), the slugs drown in the beer LOL! (one last bash with the devil before they meet thier maker, eh?).
I wish you well..
Jesse
set the garden alight
cocoa mulch. It protects from slugs, looks great, and after it rains your garden will smell like fresh chocolate! And at the end of the season you just dig it into the earth where it will compost over the winter.
Put out a dish of beer ,they will go in and drown.
Mark is right, use beer. Slugs love to hang out at the base of my clematis in my garden so I put out a shallow dish of beer. It works, the slugs die drunk and happy.
you pour beer on a plate ..set in your flower beds..they crawl in...and cant crawl out.
Put a thin layer of Quaker Oats, just plain dry Oatmeal in your garden. It absorbs all the moisture from the snails, and slugs they just dry out!!
Boil rhubarb leaves to make a strong green liquid, Rhubarb leaves have a natural poison in them, spray all the plants and the area around the plants in your garden. This works not only for S&N but for most pest too even on sap drinkers
Ever noticed that not many pest/aphids eat rhubarb leaves. It has a down point though, you have to do it regular as it is not rain resistant
salt
Nothing works! There are some plants like marigolds and hostas which are irresistable to slugs and snails; they will risk everything to eat them.
Two options are:
*Kill the slugs and snails
*Take the slugs and snails far away
I kill them with a scissors because that is instant and I don't want them to suffer the long drawn out death of poison or salting.
If I am feeling extra kind, I collect them in a bucket and take them to the woods. But you have to take them miles and miles away - they can find their way back just like homing pigeons. I painted a few with acrylic paint and took them to the end of the street, and days later I recognised them back in my garden.
Using salt is not humane - it kills them. You can buy humane traps or barriers for slugs. Alternatively, try a plastic ring of some sort around your plants, with sloping sides and an overlapping lip, which should keep slugs at bay (humanely!).
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