Fighting slugs on strawberries. How to get rid of slugs in the garden forever: proven remedies How to protect Victoria from slugs

Once, in one night, snails ate 15 pepper seedlings out of 40 planted. Let's figure out together how to get rid of snails or slugs in the garden in various ways. You can fight, get rid of them, you even need to! Snails, slugs are one of the most annoying pests in many gardens and orchards. They belong to the family of molluscs, similar in structure and biology. Only slugs don't have a shell like a snail does. These mollusks constantly secrete mucus as they move, which makes it easier for them to move, and then, when dry, forms a silvery trail that signals us the presence of these pests.

Lifestyle of snails and slugs

Slug egg laying under a cabbage leaf

All land mollusks are hermaphrodites, having reproductive organs of both sexes, so they can produce both sperm and eggs. Therefore, each individual has the potential to reproduce offspring. They can lay eggs up to 6 times a year. The maturation process lasts about 2 years for snails, and slugs reach maturity in about 3-6 months (depending on the species).

In areas with mild winters, such as southern coastal areas, these molluscs can be active throughout the year. When it's cold, they hibernate close to the ground. When it's hot, dry, slugs burrow deeper, and snails seal themselves off from the outside world with a parchment membrane to protect themselves from drying out, most often attached to tree trunks, fences, or walls. During this period, they live off stored fat, and can go without food for about three months. This ability is one of the many reasons why they have been able to survive over millions of years of evolution.

In wet spring, rainy summer, autumn, slugs, snails annoy us very much, eating strawberries, cabbage leaves, and other garden crops. The strawberry leans a little to the ground, you look - in the morning half of the berry is bitten, spoiled, and the leaves of cabbage or beets sparkle with large holes, eaten by these animals with the help of a horny arched jaw - a grater. Spoil seedlings, young shoots of many vegetable crops, fruits of cucumbers, tomatoes, tubers, potato foliage. They cause significant harm to winter wheat, eating sown grains, young shoots. Small holes are left on the leaves, fruits of vegetables, and young slugs, hatching in the upper layers of the soil, gnaw out depressions of various sizes on potato tubers.

Slug (or slug) is the common name for a number of gastropod mollusks that have undergone shell loss during evolutionary development. They develop, grow quite quickly, and can reach the adult stage in a matter of months if environmental conditions are favorable. Some species produce offspring twice a year - in spring and autumn. Garden plots are usually chosen by field, reticulated slugs.

Slugs are fat, fat, slippery creatures that have no limbs but have two sets of tentacles at the front of their body. They do not have shells, which is why they are called naked mollusks. The absence of a shell allows slugs to live in the soil, spend more time underground, where they also find food for themselves: potatoes, carrots, beets, and we lose part of the crop.

Slugs in storage contaminate vegetables, leaving traces of hardened mucus, earth, fecal residues, which contributes to the decay of the crop, reducing its shelf life. And crawling on different plants, snails, slugs spread various diseases.

With the onset of autumn coolness, slugs penetrate the country house, leaving behind long silvery stripes - dried mucus. Admit it: it’s unpleasant when you accidentally step on a wet, cold, slippery slug with your bare foot or suddenly hear the unpleasant crunch of an accidentally crushed snail.

The long, wet, soft, slippery body of the snail is protected by a hard shell where it hides when disturbed. Its typical shell is cone-shaped, twisted in a spiral. They, just like slugs belong to the class of invertebrates (animals that do not have a backbone), can live under any conditions - in the sea, fresh water, on land in humid conditions. Both have two pairs of tentacles on their heads with organs of smell and touch. One pair of tentacles is longer than the other, looking like horns. These "horns" are eyes that are located at the tips of a long pair of tentacles. A short pair of tentacles is used for smell. The tentacles are very important to them. They don't have ears, but their amazing sense of smell helps them find food.

After the rain

These mollusks are less active during the cold or, conversely, hot, dry months. On humid days, they can be found most often under cabbage leaves, under boards, stones. There they hide during the day, and in the evening they come out for food. In wet years, they can cause significant damage to garden plants. They feed on leaves, stems, flowers, fruits that are close to the ground, such as strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers. They feed mainly at night, although they sometimes act during the day when it is cloudy or raining. During hot, dry weather, they may be temporarily inactive.

Even such beauty can be destroyed

How to get rid of snails and slugs: 10 ways to fight

You can find them during the day under pre-laid boards, pieces of linoleum, old wet rags, in damp places in the garden. In the warm winter of 2013, I came across snails under old sawn stumps, brushwood, and fallen leaves.

There are several chemical methods of dealing with it, but only birds can be poisoned. For pets, people, this chemistry is not always harmless.

I know several fairly effective ways to deal with how to get rid of these garden pests.

1 way. Put a tablespoon or two of cornmeal in the jar, and lay the jar sideways where you notice the silver marks. Snails, slugs love cornmeal, but after tasting it they die. In the morning you will see a lot of dead shellfish inside or near the trap. It remains only to get rid of them, collecting, throwing them away from the garden.

Trap with beer

2 way. Dig a few holes as deep as a plastic disposable cup. Fill two-thirds of the glass with beer, put in a hole. Snails or slugs, having smelled, will surely crawl. Check these traps daily, get rid of any pests. Top up beer as needed.

3 way. Pour ammonia diluted with water (proportion 1:6) into a spray bottle. Spray the plants you want to protect against these pests with this solution. This concentration of the solution will not burn your plants, but it will scare away snails or slugs. These pests do not like the smell of ammonia - you will save the plants from their invasion.

4 way. Prepare strong coffee (brew a double dose). You can prepare a repellent solution from double-strength instant coffee. Cool, strain, charge the atomizer. This solution can be sprayed not only on plants, but also on the soil around them. If you have time, then watch the snails or slugs creeping up to the treated area in the evening. They abruptly (of course, abruptly - this is boldly said, but as quickly as they can because of their slowness) turn around, crawl away.

If you decide to use the third, fourth methods to get rid of snails or slugs, then you will have to repeat these techniques after every rain or after heavy dew.

5 way. Salt destroys, dissolves shellfish. But I would not advise using salt in the beds. Sprinkle salt on the paths or paths in your yard where you see signs of pest movement. Salt corrodes the body of snails or slugs, they will not be able to crawl through the salt path without harm to themselves. Once on the salt, they seem to dissolve. After a while, you will see empty shells, and from the slugs, as they say, there will be no wet place left.

6 way. To get rid of snails or slugs, fine gravel, crushed shells, eggshells, coarse sand, dead coffee grounds are poured between the rows of beds - all this will be an “unpleasant” surface for crawling mollusks. They will not be able to crawl over such an obstacle without injuring their delicate tummy.

Chard Scarlet will scare away snails and slugs

7 way. Slugs do not like plants with red leaves. If you sow, for example, scarlet chard beets with bright red petioles, leaves with red veins, or amaranth of a variety that has not only bright inflorescences, but also bright raspberry leaves, for example, around the perimeter of your plot, then most of the snails or slugs will not get to your plants, will save you from his presence.

8 way. Pour around tomatoes or other plants that you want to protect from slugs or snails, pine needles. You will simultaneously protect them from pests, as well as mulch the soil, protecting it from drying out. Pine needles create an acidic environment, and mollusks do not tolerate it, so they cannot get to the plants and damage them.

9 way. If you have hedgehogs, frogs, rejoice - this is a great way to get rid of slippery pests - for them, slugs or snails are a treat!

10 way. Chemical. Grocery stores sell Thunderstorm or Meta. This strong remedy against snails or naked slugs is a rough blue granules. I had to resort to this remedy (I used Thunderstorm), as the number of these unpleasant mollusks in the spring exceeds the allowable number. I have already mentioned that on the first day after planting bell pepper seedlings, 15 out of 40 planted plants were eaten at the root.

Manufacturers claim that when used correctly, this tool is completely harmless to people, pets, the environment, but still I recommend resorting to its help only if the situation is critical.

Thunderstorm blue granules will protect pepper seedlings

And below, see the result of the Thunderstorm.

Two days after the application of the "Thunderstorm"

Snails on potatoes - what to do

Last year it was hot, so the potatoes had a hard time - there was not enough moisture. I was convinced by the numerous reviews of gardeners from the Internet about the benefits of green manure. How great it is to use them as mulch to keep the soil moist in hot, dry weather.

I specifically allocated areas for green manure. One was sown with mustard, the other with phacelia. Sowed early, as soon as the snow melted. Just at the time of hilling the potatoes, she mowed them down. She covered two rows of potatoes with slightly dried grass. It seems to have sown a lot - more than a hundred square meters were occupied by green manure. But it was enough to cover only two rows with mulch (20 holes in each row).

I decided to see where the harvest would be better - with mulch or not. And then it rains, rains, rains ... Without any mulch, the earth is wet.

But the biggest problem has come to light recently. On these potato bushes, which are covered with dry grass, there are a lot of snails - small, white. Lingering until dusk, not really considering, I did not immediately realize what happened to the potatoes - I thought white flowers appeared by nightfall - there were so many of them.

During the day they were not there, and in the evening they crawled out of this dry grass, where, apparently, they were hiding from the sun, they began to dine on the leaves of my potatoes. And on the potatoes not covered with mulch, there were almost none. Here's an experiment.

But the tops on potatoes under dry grass are higher, more powerful. I looked more closely - the lower leaves of the potato became openwork! How not to lose the harvest!

The lower leaves of the potato have become openwork

Maybe they won’t eat all the tops? ... Something must be done urgently. I was not ready to deal with such small fry, with so many pests.

Be sure to share how I dealt with this problem.

P.S. I share ... In 2015, the weather coped with this problem. There was a wild heat all summer, including the first half of September. There were practically no snails on potatoes in the summer, and there were practically no other plants. They hid in the ground or somewhere else.

The easiest way to get rid of snails (slugs) from strawberry beds is with ordinary wood ash. Ash can be obtained from the stove or after the fire. Initially, sift it and spray it over the beds with strawberries. Strawberries will be dirty with ash. After harvesting, the berries can be washed and dried. Thanks to this, snails (slugs) will no longer appear on strawberry bushes. There are other ways to get rid of snails - link in the source.

Of course, collecting snails by hand is absolutely not a rewarding job!

How to get rid of snails on strawberries?

In addition to ash, you can use sawdust, sand, seed husks (in the southern regions, husks are the most common remedy). Fill all furrows with any of these means - snails and slugs will not be able to get to the berry bushes.
On the site in general - mustard, tobacco, red capsicum, garlic - both in dry form and infusions are used to fight snails.

You can plant plants in high beds.

How to get rid of snails on strawberries?

When dealing with snails in strawberries or in a summer cottage, you should not use chemicals, since there is a considerable risk of human poisoning.

You can evict an annoying neighbor from the garden using natural means:

1) Plant garlic, parsley, lavender or mustard on a strawberry plantation. Snails do not tolerate these plants.

2) Use of traps. You can lure snails in a container of soapy water (dissolve 1/3 bar of laundry soap in 1 liter of water). During the night, 7-10 snails crawl into the tank. You can also lure snails to watermelon peels. Then put them in salted water.

3) The main enemies of snails are hedgehogs. Feed a hedgehog to the summer cottage and there will be no trace of the snails.

4) Spray the area where snails live, coffee, sprinkle the soil with tobacco dust, chalk or slaked lime. These funds well repel snails.

5) Barrier strips, for example, made of plastic bottles, prevent the penetration of snails. In this way, you can protect the strawberry plantation. The snails will not be able to overcome the high fence.

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How to get rid of snails in the garden?

Yes, snails in a summer cottage are not a very pleasant neighborhood. Therefore, it is better to get rid of them.
Adding to all previous answers. You can also scatter egg shells or fine gravel or needles around the beds. Snails do not like to crawl on prickly objects.
You can also sprinkle salt or crushed superphosphate around the beds. These substances dehydrate the snails and make it difficult to crawl.
You can plant sage or rosemary around the beds, snails do not like their smell.
You can make traps out of plastic bottles. Cut off the neck, pour beer into the bottle and dig into the ground. Put the cut neck on top of the bottle, after turning it over so that it looks like a funnel. The snails will roll into the bottle.
You can scatter different cardboard boxes, boards, wet rags around the site. For the day, the snails will hide there, and in the morning you can walk around and collect all the snails.
You can also put dry nettles under the bushes of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage. Snails don't like her either.

Fight against uninvited "neighbors".

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You can get rid of snails with your hands))).
This is the easiest and safest, but long and tedious way. Snails are nocturnal and should be collected after rain or towards sunset when they start to crawl out of their hiding places. But to attract them, you can also create artificial shelters, where during the day they will hide there (old boards, wet rags, cabbage leaves, etc.). After that, it remains only to check the meta, and collect the "harvest".
If you have a personal reservoir (pond) in the garden, get a few toads and frogs there.
To combat snails, you can also use the method of insurmountable obstacles. Due to their delicate and soft body, snails are not able to overcome the barrier strip, which consists of various fragments of piercing and cutting objects. The water barrier is also insurmountable for them.
Can be used as a trap and grapefruit peel. To do this, you need to make a hole in half of the peel and put this trap like a dome at night. This smell attracts snails, and in the morning it remains only to check the traps and destroy what has accumulated in them during the night.
They also avoid contact with copper. When touched, the snails receive a small electrical discharge. And now for these purposes special tapes with a battery are sold.
Exotic lovers can recommend a method of dealing with snails by spraying plants with 1 or 2% aqueous caffeine solution. Caffeine is quite capable of killing them. Of the side effects of this method, it can be distinguished that it discolors the leaves of some plants in the treated areas. A caffeine concentration of 0.1% is already capable of scaring off snails, introducing them into a stupor, a state of confusion, and increasing their heartbeat.
To obtain a caffeine concentration of approximately 0.1%, it is necessary to dilute a double dose of instant coffee in a cup of water, or slightly less than natural.

- it's a pretty tricky one. These garden monsters appear only at night or on cloudy days, the rest of the time they are quite difficult to notice, as they hide under the foliage. Most often it is strawberries that suffer from them. How to deal with this problem, and how to protect your crop from these parasites?

Know the enemy by sight

Slugs on strawberries are quite dangerous pests that love plants with large and delicate leaves. They live mainly in dense thickets and places with high humidity. The main harm is that they literally eat vegetables and fruits and significantly spoil their appearance. After their appearance, a brilliant mark remains on the products. It is quite difficult to get rid of it, and it spoils the appetite very much.

In order to save strawberries from slugs, you can turn to the help of various chemicals. However, this should be done strictly before the first fruits appear. If the berries are already ripe, then the use of chemicals is unacceptable, as they will make the product extremely toxic.

Another way to save the harvest is to use ash. It can be obtained from a regular fire. It is necessary to sprinkle the strawberry bushes directly on top, which will make them very dirty and not attractive to pests. Ash itself is not dangerous to human health and is washed off quite simply.

A practically safe remedy for humans is the use of mustard powder. To do this, it must be diluted in water until a strong solution is formed. If necessary, you can add table salt, and process the bushes with the resulting product. Such spraying is detrimental to the delicate skin of pests, which will get rid of most of them.

Another amazing and fairly simple way is to use instant coffee. Recent studies have shown that caffeine has a detrimental effect on slugs and snails, so spraying with a regular coffee solution can be used to combat them.

Following our simple tips, you can easily rid your garden of uninvited guests. As you can see, all methods are quite simple, but it's up to you to judge the effectiveness!

A good harvest depends not only on proper watering and fertilizing the soil, but also on protecting it from pests.

Birds, moles, mice, voles and a whole range of insects - from which there is simply no salvation! The first, fortunately, can be scared away by ultrasound or, in extreme cases, get a couple of cats that will gladly disperse birds and mice from the site. But what to do with such a phenomenon as slugs and snails? By the way, the latter, at times, turn into a real scourge for strawberries, and what is most offensive is that you will not poison the crop with chemistry either.

Surprisingly fond of slugs and citrus fruits, especially grapefruit, the peel of which can be used to make a wonderful trap. To do this, cut the grapefruit in half and remove the fruit pulp. Make a hole in each of the halves, put it on a flat surface with a dome and leave it overnight. In the morning, your enemies will gather under the skin, and you can easily get rid of them.

By the way, if in addition to the garden you are breeding birds, snails and slugs will be a wonderful top dressing for them. However, this does not mean that you need to release the bird to the beds, because even though it is domestic, the love for appetizing fruits is not alien to it.

If everyday assembly is difficult for you, you can try creating an obstacle course in the path of snails using eggshells, sand or sawdust.

Due to the sharp and rough edges, the listed remedies are too unpleasant for soft-bodied slugs and, in search of food, they will bypass the area with strawberries and ground cucumbers surrounded by such a mound.

Note that you need to sprinkle each bush separately, and be sure to update the protective layer after rain or watering.

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It is known that the basis of the diet of the Achatina snail is herbs and vegetables. However, the “apartment” snail will like fruits and berries.

What fruits and berries can be given to Achatina snails, and which cannot? If you want to know, read the article to the end.

What fruits are allowed for snails

If you are in doubt whether to give this or that fruit to a snail, remember the important and main rule - this fruit should not be sour and astringent.

Fruits should not form the basis of a pet's diet, but they are excellent as a dessert. Yes, yes, snails also do not refuse desserts.

Fruits I include in my giant clam's diet:

• sweet apples (not green and not sour);
• ripe pears (conference, Chinese);
• bananas;
• apricots;
• peaches;
• litchi;
• plum;
• melon.

This is the main list. Some exotic fruits (for our region of residence), which I rarely buy and use myself, I do not give to the snail, as they are most often imported unripe.

All of the above fruits are eaten by my snail in large quantities and there have never been any problems. Of course, all these fruits are given only washed and only if they are fully ripe.

It is important to buy fruits in season. In principle, I don’t buy nectarines in winter and for myself, so I don’t give this to a snail either.

Feed snails bananas with care. A small snail can simply drown in the viscous pulp of the fruit.

Of the fruits, Chamomile prefers bananas and apples most of all, and will not refuse sweet melons either. Others eat with less enthusiasm. I pamper the snail with fruits on average twice a week.

What fruits are forbidden to snails

All acidic fruits should be excluded, and these include primarily:

• any citrus fruits - even sweet tangerine and orange can corrode the delicate body of a pet, as they contain a large amount of acids;
• kiwi (if kiwi is very sweet, for example, kiwi-gold, you can give a little to your pet);
• feijoa;
• quince;
• turn;
• pomegranate;
• persimmon - since persimmon knits, it is better not to experiment with the delicate digestive system of the snail.

Some owners give the snails persimmons if they don't knit, and kiwis, but I prefer not to experiment.

Allowed berries

It is not necessary to feed the snail with berries all summer long. Berries in the total mass are more acidic than fruits.

Most of the berries grow in the summer. Berries for the most part contain a lot of acids, but some of them can be given to a pet in limited quantities:

• watermelon;
• grape;
• raspberry;
• Strawberry;
• , blueberries (within reason, as it contains a lot of pectin);
• strawberries.

Watermelon can be given in sufficient quantities. Only you need to buy it in the season and not on the roadsides.

Cherry is also not forbidden. My snail happily eats half or even a whole berry a day in the summer season.

The snail receives all the other berries listed above in limited quantities and only if they are sweet and not fermented. Strawberries are known to contain high amounts of acids, but some varieties are very sweet. These get “on the table” of Chamomile and are eaten with pleasure by her. By the way, blueberries are also my snail's favorite.

forbidden berries

Here, too, the logic is clear:

• cranberry;
• gooseberry;
• currant - and red, and black, and white;
• viburnum;
• Rowan;
• blackberries (with the exception of especially sweet varieties);
• cherry;
• dogwood.

I have never tried to give berries such as blueberries, hawthorn, rose hips to a snail and I don’t recommend it, since these berries (especially the last two) are more medicinal and I don’t want to experiment with them either.

How many fruits to include in the diet of the Achatina snail

Since fruits in the snail's diet are additional, and not the main food, you do not need to feed them to your pet in large quantities.

I include fruits and berries no more than twice a week in small portions. If it is a fruit, then I cut off a small piece - about 10 grams for an adult pet per day. If it is a berry, then no more than two berries at a time, more often one is enough for my adult snail.

I have tried to make the information as short as possible. Thank you for reading and good health to your snails.