Don't throw out eggshells. Crush them up and throw them into your garden. They provide needed calcium to the soil as they decompose and the sharp-edged shells keep snails out of your beds.
Diatomaceous earth, available in pool supply stores, works as well. If the snails try to crawl over either material, the sharp edges slices up their obnoxious bellies.
By Linda L. from Vista, CA
This page contains the following solutions.
In the fall, if you have problems with snails, lay down an old wood board in edge of your garden. During the winter months, the snails will crawl under the board. When spring comes, go out and turn the board over.
To prevent snails from eating a new seedling you've just planted outdoors, put a ring of new, unused coffee grounds down around the plant.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I seem to be having an explosion of new snails on my plants. What are you using to stop the cute little things?
Hardiness Zone: 9a
By cybergrannie from Ocala, FL
Put some shallow containers with beer in them in the garden. Make sure the side of the container are not too high for the snails to crawl up. The beer attacks them! It worked for me!
You might try sprinkling area with sand, oyster shell,
anything a bit gritty. Maybe even coffee grounds, or diatomaceous earth.
I would sprinkle salt all around and they won't like it, lol. The beer one is good too.
Blessings,
Robyn
Hi and thanks everyone for all the info. I checked out the archives also.
I do not have beer but I have just found food quality diatomaceous earth and I think I will try it first and maybe some salt near my sidewalk.
Will salt kill outer plants or mess up the ground for future planting?
Hi and thanks everyone for all the info. I checked out the archives also.
I do not have beer but I have just found food quality diatomaceous earth and I think I will try it first and maybe some salt near my sidewalk.
Will salt kill outer plants or mess up the ground for future planting?
Yes the salt will mess up the other plants and kill them. Do the beer or go to the garden center/hardware store and get the Ortho Snails and Slugs stuff.
Back in the Spring, we had a similar problem and needed a reasonable way to get rid of them. I don't know how big your garden is, so depending on size, consider the following options.
If relatively small, a salt shaker goes a long way. sprinkle a titch of salt directly on the slugs to kill them almost instantly. if your garden is a little too large for this or you are unable to 'catch them in the act', grind up egg shells and spread the crushed up shells around the base of the plants. Slugs and snails find that finely ground shells as uncomfortable to crawl across and will avoid those areas. If you have a swimming pool that uses a filter, the diatomaceous earth used by the filter also works remarkably well when applied in the same manner.
I have 5 pet box turtles in the fenced-in back yard. and no snails or slugs!
What does having snails on the outside of the house indicate?
By Bob
You have snails or slugs? Big difference.
Very small snails that stick to the pots on my out side plants
What's a natural way to get rid of snails in my garden?
By Petunia53
Thank you to "gbilly"....I had heard of that hint before and forgot about it. I'll give it a try! Thanks again!
How do you get rid of snails? I have been losing flowers for years. I planted smaller plants and they would eat the roots away so quickly. They can destroy up to 10 a night. I then planted over 80+ large plants going down the sides and across the front of my house. Still 5-6 plants at a time would be eaten over night, only a handful have survived.
I don't really have a slug problem. I've used the snail and slug pellets, I've put moist things and pots down to gather them together and I've removed the snails early in the AM, but they are too many everywhere. The two pictures are after the snails have eaten the roots. Please help me :(
How can I get rid of tiny snails in my vegetable garden? They are eating my plants.
By LuyBaby
Take a plastic cup, fill it with beer, the bury the bottom so that only the lip of it is over the dirt, by morning, you should have a nice "Cup 'o Snails".
I don't have anything in my yard except grass. We have over 20 snails daily on the outside walls of the house. Egg shells are out of the question because of our 2 dogs. Is there anything else recommended that is pet safe?
By Terry from Jarrell, TX
You can use copper stripping. If you put it around your plants the snails/slugs will die. You can also sink a dish into the soil with beer and they will go after it and drown.
What is good to use to keep the snails from eating my beet greens as they come up?
Thanks.
By Gail
Get a 600ml coke bottle, cut the bottom off the bottle. Throw away the top piece of the bottle. Pour some beer into the bottom piece of the bottle then sit the tub in the garden.
My old air conditioner had about 80 snails in it and it made a horrible noise. I could not get them out. How do I prevent them from getting into my new A/C?
By Kathy F.
If you grow vegetables in your garden, you need to protect the plants from snails. Snails eat all vegetables, especially greens, such as cabbage, spinach, chard and lettuce. Since they multiply quickly, they can do serious damage.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
Last year I was so pleased to see plants and trees growing nicely until I started noticing holes in all the leaves. It appears I have some very hungry visitors in the form of snails.
