Suffering from slugs and snails? How to keep your garden beautiful

Are you not a fan of snails? You are not the only one: in fact, these little creatures can cause a lot of damage. Both house slugs and slugs are only too happy to eat the leaves of your leafy plants. This turns your garden into a cheese of holes in no time. This is of course a great shame. Fortunately, there are a few handy tips to easily prevent and control slugs and snails. That way you can keep your garden looking sleek and radiant all year round.

This is where snails come in

To begin with, it is important to know what snails come to. Weather conditions play a big role here. In fact, a warm, humid summer is a snail’s favorite. The wetter, the better. So you may well have more problems with slugs one year than the next.

Preventing snails

Prevention is better than cure. You can do this by choosing plants that are resistant to these slimy creatures. Carnations, geraniums and ferns are a good choice. In addition, snails are not fond of strongly scented herbs such as thyme, sage and chives. Thus, the best way to protect voracious plants is to surround them with fragrant plants and herbs. So the perfect solution if you have green fingers!

By the way, did you know that snails like to hide under piles of leaves? A good (spring) cleaning comes in handy. While cleaning up and tilling the soil, snails and eggs can die.

Controlling snails

Is the damage already done and your garden bursting with slugs and snails? Don’t panic, as there are still a few handy tricks to combat slugs and snails.

1. Move

As a pet lover, you can choose to manually remove slugs from your garden. This way takes just a little more time, but is tremendously effective. In fact, you can pick up the snails and put them back somewhere further away in nature. You can purchase your own snail tongs for this purpose so you don’t have to pick them up by hand.

Tip: Ideally, move the snails after a summer rain. That way you can be sure to find most of the plant-eating critters and give them a new home.

2. Deter

In addition to snails not being fond of strongly scented plants, they also do not like coffee grounds, crushed egg shells or shells. Gravel is also not a favorite. So you can choose to put these sharper materials around the voracious slabs. This will keep the snails at bay.

3. Giving nature a hand

You don’t have to do it all yourself. In fact, birds, frogs and hedgehogs love snails. Hang some birdhouses in the garden and put up a (small) pond or water bowl for the frogs. This way, the natural enemies will gladly come to your garden and save you work: just as convenient.