8 top tips for super easy garden slug control 

If you’ve ever done any gardening at all, you’ve probably done battle with slugs at some point. Aren’t they a nuisance? Here are my top 8 tried and tested slug control methods for you to try in your garden.

What are slugs?

According to Brittanica, slugs are:

“Any mollusk of the class Gastropoda in which the shell is reduced to an internal plate or a series of granules or is completely absent. The term generally refers to a land snail. Slugs belonging to the subclass Pulmonata have soft, slimy bodies and are generally restricted to moist habitats on land (one freshwater species is known). Some slug species damage gardens.”

And a surprising fact there is that NOT all slugs will eat your precious plants. Even though it feels like that at times, doesn’t it?

Lots of people struggle with slug control in the garden

Gardens Illustrated magazine recently polled its readers:

“On X (formerly Twitter), 78 per cent of respondents said that they still see slugs and snails as pests, and 72 per cent said they were not ready to start befriending them. On Instagram, the results were a little more mixed with 42 per cent of respondents saying they were ready to be friends with the molluscs in their garden, but 68 per cent still saw them as pests.”

So, you’re most definitely not alone in feeling frustrated with the wee blighters.

Top natural slug control methods

Now, I need you to know that these are not going to get rid of ALL the slugs in your garden. But then why would you want to do that? They’re a valuable food source for song birds like thrushes and blackbirds, and are a hedgehog’s favourite snack. 

So, keeping them under control is a much more environmentally responsible choice than obliterating them altogether. Indeed, most slug pellets consumed by slugs will kill birds and wildlife who eat those slugs, so please, please avoid those at all cost.

Beer traps

Literally any beer will do. Even alcohol-free beer. It’s the yeast in the liquid they’re drawn to. And believe me, they will race across your garden, away from your precious plants if you put beer traps down.

Use a shallow saucer like a plant pot saucer, place it AWAY from your more tender and soft plants, then fill it with beer. If you possibly can, pop it under a garden table so rain doesn’t dilute it.

Citrus shells

Whenever you squeeze any citrus fruit like oranges, grapefruit, lemons or limes, keep hold of the shell and put that in your garden. Likewise with melon rinds. Slugs will be attracted to the sweetness of the fruit and gorge on that rather than your plants. Once the shell or rind has a cluster of slugs, pop the whole thing in your garden waste bin.

Egg shells

It’s worth rinsing (so they don’t attract rats) and collecting egg shells too. Once they’ve dried out and become very brittle, crush them with gloved hands (they’re surprisingly sharp) and scatter them around your most slug magnet plants, the thicker the layer the better. Egg shells are brilliant for improving soil drainage too, so you’re getting two benefits here.

Coffee grounds

Do coffee grounds deter slugs? They can work for some people, but only use them in moderation. Coffee grounds are acidic, so adding too many to your soil or pots and containers will change the pH and possibly affect the health of your plants. Not all plants can thrive in acid soil.

Sourdough discard

This is a new one for me to try, so I’ll update this when I’ve experimented. The idea is to use an empty yoghurt pot or similar and cut wee holes in it a bit like a cat flap. Put a blob of sourdough discard on the ground, then pop the upturned yoghurt pot over it. The slugs will be attracted to the smell of the yeast, like a beer trap, and enter through the holes.

Tea bags

Another new one for me to try and report back. I’m going to put used tea bags around newly planted sweet pea seedlings a bit like sandbags. I’ve been collecting tea bags for a few weeks now, so it’s going to look a bit like a fortress.

Wool

As a knitter, I often have odds and ends of wool that I can use as slug barriers in the garden. Slugs don’t like the rough, scratchy feel, so they tend not to slither across wool if you weave it around your plants. It does need to be wool though, not polyester or acrylic. Like eggshells, wool will improve your soil too, so it’s worth asking any knitters you know if they can spare any.

Nematodes

Nematodes are naturally present in soil, but these are ones you buy in a pack, mix with water and pour over areas where you want to protect against slugs. Your soil will need to be wet when you apply them and for two weeks but that’s not usually difficult in the UK. It works for around six weeks, by which time your baby plants will probably be big and tough enough to shrug slugs off. 

Nematodes are probably the best thing to stop slugs in my experience, but they’re not cheap, especially if you need to use multiple applications.

What do slugs hate most?

In my 30 plus years of gardening, I’ve never found any one method that guarantees  protection against slugs. But then gardening never does come with guarantees, does it?

What has worked best for me is a combination of all of the above natural slug control methods. When I have citrus shells, I use those in the garden. Likewise any beer that’s gone out of date. If I remember to keep and rinse eggshells, they get scattered around the most tender, young plants.

But what slugs hate most are tough, leathery leaves on older plants and shrubs. Maybe it seems like stating the obvious, but if you stick to planting and growing gorgeous flowering shrubs, you won’t need to worry about controlling slugs in the garden.

So, depending how much time and effort you have to keep on top of different slug control methods, simply moving away from tender, soft-leaved plants to woodier ones may well be the answer for you. 

How can I get rid of slugs in my garden?

The best way to control garden slugs is to encourage a healthy ecosystem. If you attract garden birds and wildlife such as hedgehogs, they’ll eat most of the slugs and you’ll have much less of a problem.

Planting woody shrubs, or a mini hedge of native trees with autumn berries like hawthorn and rowan will increase beneficial insects for birds to feast on, as well as providing shelter for them. Once you’ve got wildlife visiting your garden, they’ll spend longer and longer there, vacuuming up all the slugs too. Thrushes eat snails by bashing their shells against a stone so they can extract the squidgy insides—mmm, delicious.

How to avoid getting stressed about slugs

The easiest way to avoid those frustrating mornings when you look out onto your beloved tiny plants that have been slugged overnight is to grow plants that slugs simply aren’t interested in.

Growing evergreen and deciduous shrubs is a super simple way to reduce issues with those pesky slugs. Shrub stems are too woody for tasty slug snacks and the foliage doesn’t seem to attract them either.

Roses are technically shrubs, though often overlooked in that category, and they’re completely slug resistant. Even if you only have space for one large container in your garden, here’s why I think it’s well worth planting a rose.

Some hardy perennials like geraniums might get nibbled a little, but they grow fast enough in spring for it not to affect the health of the plant.

If you increase the number of shrubs, roses and hardy geraniums in your garden, you’ll avoid the worry of going to bed on rainy nights in spring and summer, wondering how many of your precious seedlings will be left in the morning. Tranquillity will be restored and you’ll be able to enjoy your garden more. And who doesn’t want that?

Fancy a chat to find out more about choosing low maintenance plants for your garden? How about booking a garden consultation?