10 hours Ago By Angela Patrone
Slugs and snails are often regarded as the scourge of gardens but they do some valuable jobs for your outdoor space. These pests help to break down plant matter, disperse seeds and provide food for lots of other beneficial creatures. However, when numbers become problematic, gardeners will require a way to get rid of them.
While there are chemical slug removers on the market, it’s always worth giving the natural route a try first. Gardening expert Pim Dickson claimed that the “simplest solution” is to collect all of the slugs and snails in your garden and “physically relocate them”. The “perfect time” to do this is in the evening immediately after a rain shower.
Collect them in a bucket, and then dispose of them humanely somewhere far away. However, if slugs and snails are still finding their way into your garden, then you may need to take a “harder stance”. Pim explained that traps can also “prove highly effective”.
One that he claims that “actually works” is a beer trap. The gardening pro said: “A jar half full of beer, buried up to its neck in the ground works well, even better with a handful of oats mixed in it.” He added: “They’ll be attracted to the sugars in the beer and fall in, to be removed and disposed of later.
” The beer and oat trap works by luring in slugs, and as they enter and drink the beer, they become intoxicated and can’t get back out. Slugs and snails are attracted to the yeasty, fermented odour of beer and even prefer it to the fresh smell of your growing plants. Plan to use an inexpensive beer for this, and be sure to place these traps around your garden in the areas where you’re seeing slug and snail activity.
These creatures don’t travel very fast, so it’s important to have a fresh beer trap nearby so they don’t need to go far from where they hang out. The “best time” to try and tackle the problem of slugs and snails is spring and early summer when their ravenous appetite can cause havoc on plants and fresh young shoots..
