Ugh! Slugs!

After a rain, slugs can suddenly appear out of nowhere and end up everywhere devouring and destroying plants as they go. So how to get rid of slugs in the garden naturally and organically?

More Than One Way to Get Rid of Garden Slugs

We’ve tried a number of remedies and have also polled members of the GardensAll community. The good news is that there are simple everyday items from the kitchen you can use to help keep slugs and snails from damaging your garden. Our cross referencing of these home based remedies shows a wide range of effectiveness.

We recommend applying several strategies at once that, collectively, should reduce the population. The battle is on and you want to do whatever you can to get rid of garden slugs before they destroy your precious plants. Whatever works for you is works!

Another reason to try more than one remedy is that what works best for one gardener may not be what works best for the next. So start with a couple options that sound like the best solution that you can apply as soon as possible.

Slug Damage on Garden Plants

Garden Slugs Devouring Lettuce Leaves

How to Get Rid of Slugs Naturally

Common Kitchen Items for Garden Slugs

• Beer – (see traps section below)
• Bran – slugs and snails are known to like gorging on bran, but it kills them due to dehydration and desiccation.
• Coffee grounds – supposedly, circling plants with gritty used coffee grounds creates a barrier that slugs and snails will not cross. A controlled study did not prove this to be effective.*
• Cornmeal – place a jar of cornmeal on it’s side without a lid. Slugs and snails reportedly like corn but it kills them.
• Egg shells – Placing roughly crushed eggshells around susceptible plants may deter slugs from the sharp shells given their soft bodies.
• Yeast – (see traps section below)

If you don’t drink a lot of coffee, check with a local coffee shop. Some coffee shops such as Starbucks’ garden program have specific pick up days or times for used coffee grounds.

*We haven’t found any controlled studies where coffee grounds worked particularly well either, but it’s worth a try, especially if your soil is low in nitrogen, for coffee grounds help fix nitrogen in the soil.

Experiments With Coffee Grounds, Slugs and Snails

This second video and test using coffee powder, which is a finer texture, reveals that:

1. The coffee odor alone doesn’t deter the slugs and snails
2. That possibly, the texture is a slug deterrent since there was more slugs and snails that avoided the coarser coffee grounds then did the finer coffee powder.

However, coffee grounds are definitely good for many garden plants. This article what plants like coffee grounds, here.

Ground Coffee Experiment With Slugs and Snails

Other Remedies for Garden Slugs

• Diatomaceous Earth – Some people have found diatomaceous earth to be beneficial in deterring garden slugs.

Traps for Garden Slugs

Traps can work well for small gardens. The challenge with traps is that you’ll need to place a number of them throughout your garden and they need to be replenished often.

Beer

• BEER is a common strategy for how to get rid of snails and slugs. We hear from many gardeners who say that beer works for them. Apparently, beer attracts them, and then they crawl in and drown. (That puts a whole new spin on drowning in your beer)!
  • Bury deep containers in the soil near vulnerable plants, with the rim just slightly above ground.
  • Containers –
    • Used quart size yogurt containers, or beverage cups. Some place lids with a slug sized hole cut out though we don’t prefer that method unless it’s a clear lid. Wide mouthed glass drink bottles can also work.
    • Alternately, you can use trays or pie pans and filled with beer.
  • Add beer to around 1/2 – 2/3 full. You want them to have to reach to drink, but not so much that they don’t give it a try. Some of the slugs will crawl (or fall in) in but most won’t make it out.

Yeast

• YEAST – slugs are attracted to the yeast in beer, so you can save your beer with this concoction in approximate ratios:
  • 1 tsp flour
  • 1 tsp brewer’s/instant yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 cup warm water

Nettle Tea

• NETTLE TEA – If you have stinging nettle this is the simplest and cheapest natural remedy for getting rid of slugs.
  • Same as with the beer method, bury a deep container to about 3/4 deep, such as a quart yogurt container. Pour to half full with nettle tea. Optionally, drill a slug-size hole in lid and pop it on the container. This works best with clear lids so you can see what’s inside before you remove the lid or container.

“The beer trap method has been found to be ‘moderately effective‘.”
~GardenMyths.com

Natural Slug Remedies You Can Buy

Best Method to Get Rid of Garden Slugs

Of all these methods, we’ve found the Sluggo (OMRI-listed) pellets containing iron phosphate to be the best way to get rid of garden slugs.

Sluggo is the easiest natural slug remedy that simple to apply and maintain. Sluggo is also organic labeled and pet approved.

Contributions from the Community

We’ve had a number of solutions offered by the GardensAll community, include ducks and chickens. However, the most popular natural way to get rid of slugs is to use beer traps.

• Beer on a pie pan
• Nematodes

Do Beer Traps Work for Slugs and Snails?

Here’s Fascinating Video Proof

In case you didn’t see the fascinating time lapse video of slugs going to the beer “bar” in this video on GardenMyths.com, you may enjoy it.

Need More Garden Pest Solutions?

• Earwigs – How to Get Rid of Pincher Bugs
• Natural Pest Control for Garden Pests