Snail Repellents?

Lily

May 10, 20070 found this helpful

I have read that if you put like margerine tubs around the area with beer in them, they will fall in and drown. It says to bury them so the snails can get in but then they cant get back out. Good Luck! (smile)

Holly
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 364 Posts

May 10, 20070 found this helpful

I've tried the beer trick and ended up with a bunch of other unidentifiable bugs - and the holes in the plant leaves continued.

Snails like humid earth. What can you do to water less? Of course, if it's Mother Nature, try to arrange the landscaping so that the water drains.

I was born in California and we had snails all the time and here is how my dad killed them with out killing us kids or our pets. He went to the store and bought good old morton salt and salted any that he could see and then ran a line down the house line and any where they would travel. If they slide through the salt it kills them by dehydrating them. We had a neighbor that used snail posion and it looked like dog kibble and our little dog ate some and it killed him. It was a horriable horriable death.
So that is how my dad learned the salt trick and it worked real well. Just make sure if you are salting them by hand you flip them over. Of course as kids we just smooched them with our feet and who ever killed the most won!

My neighbour just told me that snails will NOT cross copper wire. I had my DH tack some on my barrels that have tomatoes in them.

Salt, pure and simple. They can not go thru it...take out the body fluids.

I just the following mixture. Plain Table Salt you can purchase the plain kind (the one without iodine) it's cheaper....You can usually get a box for about $0.39 cents a box or about 2 boxes for a $1.00. I also mix a bag of EPSON SALTS that you can by from Walmart drug store or most any lawn and garden center like Lowes or The Home Depot.......or Kroger Stores....just about any grocery store, etc. I take a "zipper" type zip lock bag and fill it up about 3/4 way with the epson salt then finishing filling it up the the table salt. I shake it up then sprinkle it around my flowering potted plants that slugs love to try to eat and I put a line surrounding my flower beds and a line in front of my garage door. I also sprinkle it inside the flower beds where the mulch/dirt is. This mixture explodes the slugs and kills them. Snails and Slugs ARE SO NASTY! Also you can use Shingles or Sandpaper. Get rid of slugs in the infested area then lay a barrier of roof shingles around the area to keep slugs out or use a circle of sandpaper. Sprinkle a line of lime around your plants. By applying lime we sweeten the soil making it more alkaline and deterring the slugs. Obviously this won't work around plants requiring a more acidic soil. Hardware Cloth: On raised beds staple strips of hardware cloth on wood bordered beds. Extend the cloth about 2 inches beyond the edge making sure the sharp points will be encountered by slugs trying to climb over. It rips them up. You can also use aluminum screening material in the same manner. You can push the barriers directly upright into the soil for borderless beds. Copper Strips: The use of copper strips as a barrier will give slugs a jolt of electricity. The metal ions in copper are what repel slugs. There are mixed reports on just how effective this is. One good way to try copper strips is to make a circle of the strip around just the plants you want to protect, remove slugs first. Easier too. Copper sulfate and similar copper based products may also work for the barrier method. Herbs: A mulch made of stems and leaves of strong smelling herbs like wormwood, mints, tansy, lemon balm along with conifer twigs mixed in will help stop slugs and other pests. Hair and Fur: Use a barrier of hair or fur to entangle slugs. Gross and effective.

Builders Sand: Try barriers of builders sand which has a sharp texture.

Nut Shells: Ground shells of filberts, pecans and walnuts may work, if you can find a source or grind your own.

Use "Cocoa Hulls". Warning: Dogs may be attracted to and can eat cocoa hulls which can be fatal!

Rosemary: Sprigs of rosemary scattered around repel slugs and are refreshing with their piney scent. Or plant Rosemary from packs of Rosemary seeds in your garden and flower beds. Plant, rosemary, parsley. Isopropyl alcohol spray will dry them up. Mix 8 ounces of 70% rubbing alcohol with 1 quart of room temperature water and spray. Be careful as some plants are very sensitive to alcohol sprays.

Buttermilk spray forms a crust on them doing them in. To make: Mix 8 ounces of flour, 2 ounces of buttermilk and 1 gallon of cool water. Spray those suckers! If you get it on your plants, rinse off after 24 hours.

Iron sulfate will kill them on contact. It is poison to slugs. Mix 2 teaspoon of iron sulfate with 2 quarts of water. Use in a pressure sprayer to spot spray.

Dog Food: Using dry dog food draws slugs like flies. Simply take dry dog food and put enough water on it to make it slightly soft. Place it in piles in slug infested areas. Check later in the evening and dispose of bait and slugs however you want.

Switching from sprinkler irrigation to drip irrigation will reduce humidity and moist surfaces, making the habitat less favorable for these pests.

Barriers
Several types of barriers will keep snails and slugs out of planting beds. The easiest to maintain are those made with copper flashing and screen. Copper barriers are effective because it is thought that the copper reacts with the slime that the snail or slug secretes, causing a flow of electricity. Vertical copper screens can be erected around planting beds. The screen should be 6 inches tall and buried several inches below the soil to prevent slugs from crawling through the soil beneath the barrier.

Every night I go into my backyard to clean my dog's food bowl, there are 20-30 snails in it . So I just go inside an get my morton salt and pour it on them. Then I proceed to clean out the bowl with bleach. I just need to find a way to get rid of them for good.

I tried the beer thing it definitely attracts them but they were able to hold onto the side while sipping it. The salt thing you really have to get it directly on them before it works they can go under things and they stay pretty close to the ground. I have mulch around my flowerbeds and they hide in the crevices. I too have been trying the organic way I have to in my back yard but in the front I started using the sawdust like slug and snail killer. The beer starts smelling really bad after it's hot and been there awhile.