2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
In hot summer, rain and coolness await not only plants and gardeners, but also insidious slimy enemies - snails and slugs. Their slowness and clumsiness does not prevent them from easily cope with valuable crops on the site. The easiest way to deal with them is to collect them manually. However, not everyone will like this activity. Are there alternative and no less effective ways to expel these uninvited guests from the garden?
Leave a silvery trail
While the weather is sunny outside, it is quite problematic to see snails and slugs. But as soon as the long-awaited coolness comes or it rains, they immediately imposingly crawl out of shelters and begin to actively harm gardeners and gardeners. Moreover, they spend their feast for the most part in the dark. Their diet is very diverse: strawberry leaves and berries, basil, lettuce, cabbage, all kinds of flowers, etc. These mollusks simply adore the young tender parts of the plant, but ignore the trunks and more elastic leaves.
Their presence in the garden is revealed by elongated irregular holes on fruits, leaves, flowers or roots. It is not uncommon to see slimy traces of a silvery color around a particular area. Slugs and snails feed on the radula - a small formation on the tongue in appearance, resembling a grater. All these creatures are hermaphrodites, that is, any individual is capable of laying transparent eggs glued together, the number of which often reaches 50 pieces. They are often visible to the naked eye directly in the topsoil.
Create anticonditions
Slugs and snails simply adore dampness, as well as coolness, so it is advisable to create completely opposite conditions for them. For example, give up mulching, loosen the soil more often and do not plant plants close to each other. Such measures will help get rid of excess moisture. It is advisable to place the most beloved plants of these creatures in an area well-lit by the sun, and at the same time often feed them with compost or any other organic fertilizers. In this case, the earth will heat up and dry faster.
Plants should not creep along the ground - it is more optimal to come up with some kind of support for them. Remove rocks, planks, and debris from the garden that snails and slugs are hiding under. But leave the broken old pots - they will become a place of residence for toads, which are happy to feast on shellfish. Natural enemies of these creatures are also: lizards, birds, frogs, moles, shrews, snakes, hedgehogs, fireflies, geese and chickens. Molluscs don't like strong odors, so plant aromatic herbs such as rosemary, lavender, sage, or thyme in the area.
We build insidious traps
Slugs and snails are very soft-bodied creatures that dislike any sharp surfaces. If they cut their bodies, they will soon die or dry up. Sprinkle the row spacing with brittle sand, diatomaceous earth, fine gravel, coffee grounds, or eggshells. It is advisable to renew the coverings after each rain. Pests will be stopped by plastic gutters with water around the perimeter of the garden. In addition, metal meshes are often used as a barrier. But copper acts like an electric current on snails and slugs, so the fence can be made from it. Before erecting it, be sure to clean the inner part behind the fence from the shellfish.
You can buy slippery pest traps from the store or make your own. The beer trap is often used. For this, beer is poured into a small bowl and buried flush with the ground. It is advisable to cover it with a lid with holes on top in order to protect it from rain. Snails and slugs love the aroma of malt. You can add baker's yeast to the trap to increase efficiency. The beer is changed every two days and it is cleaned of dead shellfish. Instead of beer, sweet water or any fruit juice is also suitable.
Another trap will result from two planks placed on top of each other, with stones between them. In the morning, remove the stones and walk on the board with your feet. In a day, other mollusks will crawl to devour the crushed relatives.
Sometimes bait with melon or grapefruit is used. In addition, some gardeners place bottles of freshly picked, damp weeds between the beds. The containers are checked every morning. In this case, any of the traps
must be renewed after rain, otherwise it will lose its effectiveness.
No matter how you fight snails and slugs, you must remember that they play a very important role in maintaining biological balance and help to recycle organic matter. If you destroy them all cleanly, then it is likely to disrupt the natural harmony.
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