SLUGS can be a real nuisance and if you are fed up with them climbing all over your plants, then fear not, you’ve come to the right place.
Late summer often means that slugs are busy searching around gardens for tasty plants to feast upon.
Whilst it can be frustrating for many gardening enthusiasts, a professional gardener has revealed the best way to deal with them.
Not only is this hack natural, but it’s incredibly affordable too – and you may already have the secret in your cupboard.
Whilst sprinkling crushed eggshells around your plants to act as a barrier is a very popular gardening method to keep slugs away, Matt Peskett, a gardener and founder of Grow Like Grandad has shared what to do instead.
According to Matt, using eggshells has not worked for him and instead, there is a better way to keep slugs out of your garden for good.
Matt explained: “If I had a pound for each time I heard somebody recommend crushed egg shells as a slug and snail barrier I’d be rich.
“The problem is, it’s mostly a load of old cobblers which never ever gave my plants any kind of protection whatsoever.”
Instead, Matt has done a series of experiments around his garden to see what works best to stop slugs from eating plants.
He discovered that it is best to combine a dry powdery substance with rose thorns.
The green-fingered guru highlighted: “In my tests, snails will not cross a barrier of dry fine powdery ‘stuff’.
“It’s pretty obvious that it sticks to them, they can’t get any traction to climb over it but the granules must be small.”
So if you want to give this trick a try, you can use a variety of items, many of which you may already have in your cupboard.
But the cheapest hack will cost you just 45p – yes you heard that correctly, thanks to a bag of plain flour from Sainsbury’s.
Common pests in the garden don’t need to be a cause for alarm. If you can identify them, you can work on getting rid of them and preventing them from returning.
Aphids (Greenfly, Blackfly)
Aphids are extremely common and can impact plant growth. They have tiny soft pear-shaped bodies, and are usually green or black. You may spot them clustered on the stem of soft shoots – look under leaves in particular – or may find a sticky substance on your plants that gives away aphids have been there sucking at the sap.
Whitefly
These small white-winged insects are related to aphids, at just 1 or 2 mm in length, and look very much like white moths as adults. They can be found on the underside of leaves, preferring younger, fresher leaves. They fly in clusters when you disturb them. Their lifecycle is only three weeks long, which means an infestation can occur very rapidly.
Slugs
An unmissable, squashy-looking body plus small sensory tentacles on its head. Slugs move along on one muscular foot. They range in scale from surprisingly small to terrifyingly large; limax cinereoniger species can grow comfortably beyond 20 cm in length.
Cabbage Moth Caterpillar
Cabbage moth caterpillars happily make their way into the heart of the vegetables, The caterpillars are distinguished in shades of yellow or browny green with no hair.
Mealy Bug
Mealybugs are tiny oval-shaped insects that have a white, powdery wax coating. There are several different species, many of which have what looks like legs coming from their sides and back end. In their earliest stage of life, it’s entirely possible to mistake them for fungus and not recognise them as insects at all.
Matt claimed that you can use flour, coffee grounds, talcum powder, soot, wood ash, or oatmeal or gypsum.
All you have to do is pour a two-centimetre barrier of your chosen powdered item around your plants and slugs will not be able to reach them.
Not only will slugs find it difficult to crawl after being coated in the substance but the dry substance will also soak up the moisture from the slugs, which will disrupt their movement.
IF you want to ensure that your home is pest free this summer, here's what you need to know.
Hornets and wasps – hate the smell of peppermint oil so spraying this liberally around your patio or balcony can help to keep them at bay.
Moths – acidic household white vinegar is effective for deterring moths. Soak some kitchen roll in vinegar and leave it in your wardrobe as a deterrent.
Flying ants – herbs and spices, such as cinnamon, mint, chilli pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cloves, or garlic act as deterrents.
Mosquitoes – plants, herbs and essential oil fragrances can help deter mozzies inside and out. Try eucalyptus, lavender and lemongrass.
As well as this, you can also save rose thorns and use them as a barrier around your plants.
Matt continued: “It turns out that a wall of horizontal short thorns is neither edible nor crossable.
“Trust me I watched the snails with their tiny little mouths trying to demolish thorns and failing.”
He advised: “Wearing thick gloves, cut them into short straight, leafless stems and build complete barriers around the base of your plants, snails can’t cross them.”
According to Matt, he found that the best solution to keep slugs out of his garden and stop them coming back was to use both rose thorns and a dry substance around his plants.
The gardening whizz shared: “I favour a dual approach to plant protection using both a powdery substance AND bramble stems.”
According to Matt, this will be the “perfect gastropod plant protector”, as after much testing, he found it was the most effective, natural gardening method to stop slugs from eating plants.
