How to Get Rid of Snails and Slugs

Snails and Slugs are probably the most devastating insect to the gardens and plants.


Killing snails and slugs with pesticides (so called molluscicide pellets) may be very effective, however it is also devastating to the wildlife, your pets, and your family. When the snails and slugs natural predators eats the contaminated snails and slugs they will too get contaminated and get very ill and sometimes die. If your curious domestic pets and young family members sees those bright blue pesticides, they are very likely to eat it and end up getting very ill. However they are some recent technology that manufactures now make snails and slugs pesticides with animal repellent in it, it repels your pets from it, but it is still damaging to the natural predators if they eat the contaminated snails and slugs.

So on this instructable, I will show you a few ways how to get rid of snails and slugs without using those dangerous snails and slugs pesticides.


Please note that I am only 15 years old and I am not very good at grammar so if you find some parts of the instructable confusing, please let me know and I will try fix it.

Step 1: Snail and Slug Removal

The most effective (and green) way of getting rid of snails and slugs is hand picking them from your garden... Yes, I know that sounds like a disgusting job to do, but it is much better than killing the wildlife with pesticides.

If you never have done snail and slug picking, be prepared for the shock of how many snails and slugs that lives in your garden (when I first started doing snail and slug picking, I was amazed how many snails and slugs that lives in my garden, there was like hundred's of them)!

Through my experience of snail and slug picking, the best ever time to pick them is a few hours after sunset after a rainstorm although some snails and slugs come out at night or in a rainstorm during the day.
The reason the snails and slugs like to come out at night is because it is cool, fewer predators, and less chance of drying out, if the snails and slugs are out in a sunny day, they would get too hot and dry out and die.

When you go snail and slug picking, put the captured victims in a bucket with some soapy water so they cannot climb out of the bucket while you are doing snail and slug picking, and put the lid on after you are finnish picking them, otherwise they will try get out of the bucket. Also if you are squeamish about the slime, wear rubber gloves or use a long-handled dandelion digger or a pair of long tweezers.

Step 2: What to Do With Your Victims.

After you collected all the snails and slugs in the bucket, you might be asking your self, "what can you do with all of them?"
Well, heres some tips...

• You can kill them all with salt (very disgusting).
• Keep them as pets (if you love them, my sister loves them very much).
• Feed your animals that eats snails and slugs.
• Or you can take them all to some very grassy or over grown places, the snails and slugs will do a good job to make the over grown places look tidier.

After the snails and slugs stayed in the bucket for a few hours, I found some eggs!!! I don't know who laid them, probably a slug, anyway this is my first time seeing some eggs laid by who ever laid the eggs!
I am sure GorillazMiko will want the eggs! _{Just kidding!}

Also the eggs are very bouncy, I accidentally drop one on my desk and it went bouncing around on my desk like a bouncy ball!

Those two more options are n8man's ideas, so credits to n8man.

• Drop them off in your worst neighbor's (enemy's) back yard.
• Sell the snails (no slugs) to a french restaurant (not all of the french restaurants will accept the snails, but some will).

Now you might be asking your self, "why in the earth would the french restaurants would want the snails?" (It is quite disgusting, if you really want to know, read on.) Well it is because the french people _eats the snails.

Step 3: Snail and Slug Barrier

If you don't want to go snail and slug picking because you find them too disgusting or lazy, how are you going to protect your plants from snails and slugs?

Well, you can make a snail and slug barrier with...

• Waste vegetation, the snails and slugs are likely to eat this instead of your valuable plants.
• Spiky things like crushed egg shell, sweetgum tree's spiky ball seed, it makes the snails and slug's traveling very uncomfortable.
• Wood ash from fireplace or bonfires, it makes the snails and slug's traveling very uncomfortable.
• Pure cool soot, it makes the snails and slug's traveling very uncomfortable.
• sawdust, it makes the snails and slug's traveling very uncomfortable.

You can use any one of those options as a snail and slug barrier.
To make the barrier, you put a small mound of the stuff around your plants that is constantly eaten by snails and slugs.

Step 4: Snails and Slug's Deadly Predator...

Okay, if you cannot do any of those things in the previous steps, heres one more thing you should be able do... Buy the Decollate snails, put them in your garden, and watch the mother nature do the work...

The Decollate snails are probably the best way to control snails and slugs.
The Decollate snail will hunt, kill, and eat snails and slugs, they will also eat the baby snails and slugs and their eggs, if the Decollate snail cannot find any snails or slugs to eat, they will eat dead plant matter and sometimes eat live plant matter, but not much...
The Decollate snail are perfectly harmless and nontoxic so they are safe to put in your garden were your young ones and your pets play in.