There’s nothing more annoying than spending time pre-sprouting, cultivating or otherwise preparing your vegetable garden for a new season – only to walk into the garden after a rainy night and see all the leaves more hollow than a western villain.
Slugs have been making their appearance in Denmark for many years and can be incredibly difficult to control.
This year (2024) there are exceptionally high numbers of slugs in the garden – so now you have to take action to get rid of them.
If you leave them alone, things will get worse – maybe even next year, when they will have established themselves and found good hiding places to lay eggs for the next season.
Below are 5 easy tricks to combat slugs and snails:
1) Barrier plants as a wall
Plant herbs such as lavender, rosemary, sage and thyme around the plants you want to protect. Slugs avoid these plants due to their strong odour, creating a barrier of sorts that slugs will avoid.
2) Attract enemies
Attract natural enemies like birds and hedgehogs by creating an inviting environment for them in the rest of the garden. For example, you can set up bird baths and birdhouses or create hiding places for hedgehogs in the garden – they’ll lend a hand!
3) Scent trap
Make a depression in the garden and place a bucket or similar in the hole – fill it with something that slugs are attracted to, for example something as bizarre as a good beer. That way, they fall into the trap and can’t get out again. Then you can empty the beer slug bucket once a day!
4) Biological ‘warfare’
Use nematodes, which are microscopic worms that attack the snails. They can be bought as a biological control agent and mixed in water, which then waters the soil.
5) Stop playing hide and seek
Remove weeds, dead leaves and other organic material from your garden where slugs can hide and lay eggs. Make sure you dispose of your garden waste after you’ve mowed it – weed around beds as small nooks and crannies and damp places attract the killer snails.
