Slugs and snails are attracted to a garden because there is lots of food to eat there.  The nicely manicured areas with healthy plants provide a banquet that is hard to find anywhere else.  However, it is not a banquet for them, at least not for long.

Night Feeders

Snails and slugs feed primarily at night, so you do not usually see them.  You see the damage they do, however, as bites in the strawberries, tomatoes, and greens in your garden.  They also leave behind slime trails that look silvery in the light.

No Copper Based Baits

Dealing with these critters takes several steps.  These do not include the old copper-based bait that kills pets but do include some things that are lethal to the snails and slugs.  But first, you need to understand their biology to understand how to control them.

Lifecycle of Slugs and Snails

Snails lay masses of eggs on the undersides of plants or in the dirt.  When the young hatch, they start eating the plants immediately.  Snails hide during the day under rocks, logs, fallen leaves, and things of this nature so they do not dry out in the sun.  Slugs have a similar life cycle, just minus a shell.

Cultural Controls

To get rid of these pests, first, eliminate as many of their hiding places as you can.  Remove plant debris, make sure your compost pile is at a distance from your garden, and remove rocks and logs from the garden.  Using drip irrigation can help as it leaves the snails without moisture without starving your plants for water.  If you can, water in the morning so there is not much moisture on plants at night.

Hand Picking

If you can overcome the yuck factor, go out in the early part of the night and pick as many of these pests off your plants as possible.  Drop them in a jar of soapy water to drown.  If that is just too gross, move on to the next item.

Beer-Baited Trap

The old beer-baited trap works just fine.  Fill a tuna can with beer and set it in a hole so the edges of the can are a little below ground level.  The snails go for the beer, fall in, and drown.  You just empty the trap each morning and rebait it.  Commercial traps are available, as well.

Copper Strips

Copper strips can be used to create a barrier.  It is believed that they create an electrical field that reacts with the slime of the snail and repels them.  The strip must be wide enough for the whole slug or snail to be on it and not touch anything else to work.

Slug Baits

Slug bait is available.  The old slug bait, metaldehyde, is very poisonous to mammals as well as to slugs and should not be used. 

Iron Phosphate

The newer slug bait is made of iron phosphate, which the slugs eat.  It damages their digestive system and they starve to death.  It is not nearly as poisonous to mammals, although it certainly isn’t good for them.  So use the slug bait if you have to, but be careful of your dogs and cats if you do.  In the United States, the bait is sold as Sluggo® or Escar-Go® baits. 

Ferric sodium EDTA

This kills slugs and snails more quickly and is not as toxic to non-target animals.  It is used similar to iron phosphate.

Pesticide Safety

Be sure to follow label directions and spread the bait right after rain or after watering because this is when snails are most active.  Do not place baits directly on the vegetables unless the label says that is an acceptable use.  Put around the vegetables instead.

Snails and slugs can do a lot of damage in a garden.  I generally take a live and let live attitude to critters, but not when they eat my food.  Hopefully, this article has helped you if you are having the same problem with snails and slugs and want to eradicate them.  

Want to learn to garden? My first attempt at gardening ended up in failure. The weeds took over and squeezed the vegetables out. I was very frustrated by this waste of good seed, time, and money. So I became a master gardener and spent a lot of time helping other people avoid or overcome problems in their garden. 

In order to help others garden successfully, I have written a book, Vegetable Gardening from the Ground Up, available in an ebook or a paperback from Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.