9 Organic Ways to Get Rid of Snails or Slugs in the Garden
Slugs and snails can wreak havoc in a garden, chewing up plant leaves or devouring seedlings entirely. The good news is, there are several ways to stop them – organically! This post will explore 9 ways to control slugs and snails to mitigate their damage, including tips and tricks that I find work best in my garden.
We’ll also briefly explore what types of plants slugs and snails like to eat most, which ones they avoid, and a couple of myths about using eggshells and coffee grounds to deter them!
About Snails and Slugs
Slugs and snails are very common and frustrating garden pests. They’re especially prevalent in climates with ample moisture or humidity, and most active during the wet seasons. Yet even in the driest months, a well-irrigated garden provides snails and slugs prime habitat.
During the daytime, snails and slugs take cover in dense shrubs, leaf piles, under logs, or other damp and dark locations. Then at night, they emerge and feed!
In addition to being ferocious eaters, snails and slugs rapidly reproduce. If their populations are left unchecked, they can cause serious destruction to your garden.
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What Do Snails and Slugs Eat?
Slugs and snails feed on both fresh and decaying matter (such as rotting leaves, wood or fungi) but are especially attracted to tender herbaceous plants. Leafy greens, cabbage, young seedlings, strawberries, beans, zucchini, cucumber, pepper plants, basil, and other tender greens are snail favorites. I always find them on the lettuce in my garden.
Many flowers and ornamental plants are also highly attractive to snails and slugs, including marigolds, dahlia, hostas, zinnia, sunflowers, succulents, and more.
Soft new sprouts or leaves that are in contact with the soil or mulch layer are easy targets, though snails and slugs slither up into taller plants to graze on tender new growth as well.
What Plants Do Slugs or Snails Avoid
In general, snails and slugs avoid tough, prickly, bitter, and/or highly aromatic plants such as rosemary, catmint, and lavender. Apparently, they’re also not big fans of ferns, geraniums, columbine, hydrangeas, euphorbia, yucca, wormwood, begonias, or Japanese anemone. If you struggle with slug and snail control in your ornamental garden, I recommend planting some less desirable plants as a preventative measure.
How Snails and Slugs Damage Plants
The first telltale sign that you have snails in your garden is the silvery, slimy trail of mucus they leave behind. As they feed on plants, snails and slugs chew large holes in leaves. The holes are typically irregular in shape, and may appear in the middle of leaves or around the edges.
Young tender seedlings are especially at risk, as snails or slugs can quickly kill them in one visit. Larger established plants can usually withstand some unsightly snail activity without permanent damage. However, if they eat the centermost part of the plant where new growth is formed (the terminal bud), it could halt plant growth completely.
9 Organic Ways to Control Snails and Slugs
Here are 9 different ways to control or get rid of slugs and snails in your garden, including a variety of preventative measures, physical barriers, traps, and organic products to try.
1) Manual Collection
Manual collection or hand-picking is a very simple and effective way to get rid of snails or slugs. On a damp evening or after watering, head outside with a flashlight or headlamp an hour or two after dark. Take a look around the plants or areas you usually see evidence of snail damage. Chances are, you should be able to find many – dozens even!
Collect the snails or slugs and put them in a bucket or trash bag. Then, you can either relocate them elsewhere or dispose of them. Or, you can drop them into a bucket of hot soapy water for a quick demise. Play it safe and wear gloves; some snails and slugs carry parasites or pathogens that are harmful to humans.
I used to keep collected snails in a bucket with a lid overnight to feed to our chickens the next day. Yet I have since learned that snails, slugs, grubs and earthworms can carry roundworm and gapeworm parasites that are harmful to chickens. While the chickens may naturally forage for them on their own, I no longer collect and intentionally feed them those things.
2) Set Traps
Did you know that snails and slugs love beer? Actually, it is the yeast they’re attracted to – and can smell it from a good distance away. That said, I’ve found that sourdough starter works in slug traps too!
To make a snail or slug trap with beer, simply fill a wide shallow container with an inch or two of beer and set it out in a high snail traffic area. Thankfully, I’ve found that cheap beer works best. You could use saved tuna or cat food cans, or larger containers like a pie tin, old tupperware container, or similar. You can also buy specialized snail trap containers.
For the best results, I recommend slightly burying the container so the rim is close to the soil level – making it easier for slugs or snails to crawl in. Once they do, they should be trapped and drown in the beer. Empty and refill the snail beer traps every day or two as needed. They get smelly!
This is one of my favorite easy ways to get rid of a lot of slugs or snails at once. I like to set several traps out at a time to increase my odds.
RELATED: See more step-by-step tips and details in my complete guide about making DIY beer traps for slugs and snails here, including how I use sourdough starter instead!
3) Reduce Habitat
We had tons of snails in our old garden… until we removed their home! There was a large swath of ice plant that bordered our front yard, just about 10 feet away from our raised garden beds. Every night, snails would venture out in droves to dine on our fruit and veggies. We eventually removed the ice plant (it was invasive and messy!) and our snail problem went away.
This option won’t be feasible for every situation, but if you have known snail hotspots right next to your edible garden, consider thinning them out. Remember: snails love to hide in damp, dark places during the day.
Your choice in mulch can even make a difference. For example, a deep fluffy bed of straw or leaves are more snail-friendly than a layer of compost or fine bark mulch. Eliminating those types of micro-environments in close proximity to your tender edibles may help get rid of snails and slugs.
4) Cloches or Collars
We also use different types of physical barriers to prevent snails and slugs from accessing our plants, such as cloches and collars.
Cloches are small domes that go over individual plants, which can block garden pests as well as protect them from frost. You can purchase pre-made cloches, or make DIY cloches from used plastic 2-liter bottles or milk jugs. Keep in mind that plastic cloches can create extra heat and condensation inside (like a mini greenhouse) so avoid using them on hot days.
Like cloches, collars can buffer access to individual plants from pests cruising along the soil surface. Collars can be made from plastic bottles (cut into rings), by cutting out the bottom of used yogurt or cottage cheese containers, plastic cups, or any other material you can fashion into a raised circle around the base of the plant.
Snails and slugs typically choose the path of least resistance and therefore can be deterred when they come across a collar. But because collars are open on top, there is a chance they may simply crawl right up and over. Collars that have a bigger lip or rim create an additional obstacle, and are usually more effective. You can also line the rim of a collar with vaseline or copper tape, explained more below.
5) Copper Tape
Slugs and snails don’t like to crawl across copper. When they do, it creates a biochemical reaction that feels unpleasant for them (like an electrical shock), so they’re usually deterred and turn around.
Therefore, wrapping copper tape around the base of plants, the edges of pots, raised beds, and protective collars, or even around the trunk of a tree may prevent slug and snail access.
Thin strips of copper won’t be effective since they can quickly scoot and stretch across it. Wide strips of copper (like this one!) are the most effective for slug and snail control.
6) Sluggo
‘Sluggo‘ is a popular product used to kill snails and slugs. It is OMRI-listed, meaning it is considered safe and acceptable to use in edible organic gardens.
Sluggo’s primary active ingredient is iron-phosphate, which is reportedly safe to use around kids, pets and wildlife. According to the National Pesticide Information Center, studies show that beetles and earthworms are not negatively affected by iron phosphate, even in concentrations twice the allowable limits. Bee exposure is unlikely due to the way it is applied. Organic or not, I usually try other natural control methods before reaching for something synthetic.
To use Sluggo, simply sprinkle the small white pellets around problem areas or concentrated hiding places, such as under shrubs. Slugs and snails are drawn to it, consume it, and then lose their appetite ands top eating altogether.
It’s best to apply Sluggo when the weather forecast is free of rain (or other water) for a few days, as it begins to degrade once it becomes saturated. As the pellets break down, the iron doubles as a fertilizer for your garden.
7) Use Drip Irrigation
The more water that’s around, the more slugs and snails will thrive. So, try to reduce overhead or sprinkler watering and switch to drip irrigation where possible. Drip irrigation delivers water only around the base of plants where needed, and can even be buried under a light layer of mulch. I also set our drip timers to water close to sunrise, rather than in the evening when snails and slugs are most active.
Clearly this method won’t make as much of an impact in areas that receive regular rain year round. But in climates with extended dry periods like mine, it can make a big difference!
RELATED: Learn how to install easy DIY drip irrigation for raised garden beds here, or how to connect a DIY drip irrigation system for shrubs and trees to a nearby hose spigot.
8) Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth (also known as DE) is a natural powder made from ancient fossilized phytoplankton. It’s commonly used used in food, cosmetics, and filtration systems (though is hazardous when inhaled.) When certain pest insects come in contact with DE, it causes them to dry out, leading to death by desiccation. However, DE is most effective against insects with an exoskeleton – such as earwigs, mites, ants, millipedes, cockroaches, crickets, centipedes, and pill bugs.
Truth be told, I have read conflicting things about how effective DE is at killing slugs or snails. Their thick mucus covering likely provides a decent layer of protection; DE doesn’t kill earthworms for this same reason.
But experiments show that they definitely prefer to not crawl over it, and will avoid it when encountered! Accordingly, dusting a wide ring of food-grade DE on the soil surface around plants or the perimeter of a garden bed may effectively deter slugs and snails. DE works best when it is dry, as it is rendered temporarily ineffective when wet.
9) Encourage Natural Predators
Snails and slugs have many natural predators, including chickens, ducks, geese, mice, opossums, raccoons, toads, hedgehogs, ground beetles, snakes, turtles, and birds. So, encouraging diverse native wildlife in your yard can often help keep pest populations naturally in balance – including snails and beyond! For instance, opossums also eat ticks and rodents, so they’re great friends to have around the garden.
RELATED: My garden is a certified wildlife habitat! Come learn how to create a wildlife-friendly yard – and get certified if you wish.
Myth: Crushed eggshells or coffee grounds for snail control
You may have heard that sprinkling crushed eggshells or coffee grounds in a ring around the base of plants (or the perimeter of a garden bed) will prevent snails and slugs from crossing over to your plants. The theory is that they don’t like to crawl over sharp, pokey things.
After hearing mixed reviews on how well this works, I decided to dig deeper. I found this experiment that showed snails and slugs don’t mind coffee grounds much at all, and also this myth-buster post about snails and eggshells. In fact, calcium is an essential part of a snails diet (to maintain their hard shell) so they may actually be attracted to the calcium-based eggshells!
So, it looks like coffee grounds or crushed eggshells will likely NOT adequately protect your plants from hungry, determined snails. Or, have you had success with this organic snail control trick? Let us know in the comments below!
And that sums up 9 organic slug and snail control methods to try.
Well, what do you think? Did you pick up on a few new tips? I hope so! Are there any slug and snail control techniques that work for you, that I failed to mention? Let us know, or feel free to ask questions in the comments below. With a little careful thought and diligence, I have faith you can protect your plants from these hungry garden pests.
As always, remember that an organic garden is never a “perfect” one – and that is more than okay! Thank you for reading, and best of luck.
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18 Comments
Sherri W
We live in a lakeside town (former marshy area) in central Alberta 🇨🇦 – the slugs are horrendous!!! Eggshells, coffee grounds, old asphalt shingles – none of these worked. And since they proliferate in wet weather, the beer traps just got doused in rain! So far, the only thing I’ve been able to do is to pick and mercilessly squash them either evening or early morning – disgusting and awful, but they won’t leave me any garden if I spare them. Also, they don’t just come from outside the garden, I’ve found them in the soil. 😡
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Thanks for sharing Sherri, maybe the beer traps would work if they had some type of cover to protect them from rain (easier said than done I am sure) but the traps need to be changed out every couple days anyway if you have a few clear days to work with. Being in a high slug area can be quite a challenge, natural predators can help somewhat if you have a lot of frogs in the area or can lure more birds to your garden as well. Thanks again and have fun growing!
Gloria S Anton
I purchased a load of dirt after having my driveway concreted and apparently it was full of snails in some form. Two years later (I live in Florida and we have been especially humid and wet the past month) and I am inundated with snails – on everything including the house! They are the white/tan spiral shell variety, not the beautifully patterned ones shown in your photos! (I think I’d eat those). So I figured if anyone had any safe suggestions for removal, it would be you guys. I picked a handful this morning gardening and put them in epsom salt. I’ll be putting out beer bowls tonight before work to see if that has an effect. They love hiding in the grooves of the night blooming cereus. And they do seem to like my moisture-loving lavender plants. The batch collected this morning, however, was off of the water hyacinth and cattail plants in my little pond. Oh how I wish I could introduce some snail eating lizards!! I did have a glass lizard slither by while I was pulling out weeds, so maybe he’s had a hearty breakfast! And I hope Mr. Toad has been dining well! Thanks for the great info!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Gloria, good luck dealing with the snails and hopefully you find a few of the tips to work well for you!
Ilana Williams
I’m not a beer drinker, but I have sourdough starter coming out my ears! Would they be attracted to the discard mixed in water instead of yeast in the beer? Thanks!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Ilana, they absolutely love sourdough starter, we do go over ways to use discard in snail traps in our Homemade Beer Traps: Get Rid of Slugs, Pillbugs and More article, hope that helps and good luck!
Tanya
Why was the gardener arrested?
For “a-salting” a snail! 🐌
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Tanya, thanks for the laugh!
Cori
I use galvinized tanks for my garden because slugs will not go up them. But then you can never buy starters from anyone else. I unfortunately did and they had slug eggs in them so I had to do the night collection! Ugh! Here in the NW the slugs are many. The beer traps never worked and copper strips have to be super wide or they would travel across. DE only works if it doesn’t rain, hello I’m in the NW haha. Galvenized tanks or legs on a raised bed was the answer for me!
Deanna
Will this work for worms too? The beer idea
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
I don’t believe it will. Why do you want to trap worms? They are great for soil and are found wherever the land is fertile.
Joni
Great snail article! Will try anything as we have a lot of snails here in Los Osos. One thing I’ve used with success is wool pellets. Little pellets made of wool that you spread around the perimeter. As you water the pellets felt and become a mat of sorts that slugs & snails don’t want to cross. It’s kind of expensive but it works!
Tracee
I actually HAVE had luck with eggshells as a slug deterrent. I have slug issues in 3 of my raised beds, and I sprinkle a circle of crushed eggshells a couple inches away from the base of the plant. I keep the shells fairly large – crushing them small doesn’t seem to be as effective.
Wanna Be
re: Snail and Slug Control – I accidentally found this method which I find most helpful. Put a piece of clean wood, unpainted and not treated, (a 2×4 works well) on the ground in the garden bed. The snails/slugs will latch onto the underside of the board within several hours or overnight (depending on when you leave the board there). Pick up the board and either scrap it into the trash can or bag, drop the board on something hard (too yucky for me), or dispose of with your favorite method.
DeannaCat
That’s a great trap trick, thanks for sharing – and for tuning in!
CJ
If you ever saw the movie the “Biggest little farm” then you know it was the ducks who finally got control over the out of control snails, ducks love snails! Any gardeners who haven’t seen the film, I suggest watching it! it’s one of my all time favorites 🙂
Angela
‘The biggest little farm’ s become my favourite movie too, the triumph of nature is a wonderful thing.
Also love the quote from a famous permaculture expert “You don’t have a snail problem, you have a duck deficiency!”
Christina
I’m always so impressed with your willingness to use science and research when you post things. I noticed this article looking for something else and immediately wondered if the good ol’ eggshell remedy everyone on social media talks about was going to make an appearance. So happy to see it under the “myth” title. Keep up the great work! Slugs (and cabbage butterflies) are the bane of my existence in my Western Washington garden. Lol