tips and recipes that really work

It’s always right when we think we can finally enjoy a beautiful bloom after weeks or even months of preparation and rain: the gardener’s little enemies are back and we need to get rid of them before our work is wasted. . Slugs are back to ravage your flowers? No worries: we give you the best recipes to fight naturally against these little herbivores. Cheap, ecological and effective, these recipes are to be tested in your garden without delay before they reproduce their hundreds of eggs.

First of all, don’t you see exactly what these little beasts look like? Imagine snails without a shell and you have slugs. These mollusks come in lots of different colors – red, gray, black – and they tend to glow in the sun. In fact, slugs not only physically resemble snails, but they act in much the same way as pests of plants.

Why fight against slugs?

We are not the only ones to find delicious vegetable leaves … Whether in the vegetable patch, in the garden or in small individual flower pots, slugs are attracted to all the freshness of spring – leaves, young plants, vegetables, fragile stems, sprouted seeds, everything! In the vegetable garden, cucurbit plants, which includes pumpkins, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins among others are particularly attractive to slugs.

Read also: The best natural mosquito repellent recipes

Prevention is better than cure

If the slugs haven’t taken on your garden yet, don’t wait for them to surprise you: here are some tips to protect all the plants in your garden and avoid attracting them.

Attract natural predators: When nature comes to life in the spring, and rests in the fall, arrange your garden in such a way that it attracts natural predators of slugs. But who are these garden friends? Among them, hedgehogs play a big role in the success of your plants. Not only will you no longer see slugs with this trick, but the hedgehog also hunts other pests such as snails or centipedes. To attract it, avoid pesticides and leave dead leaves and compost on the ground. Birds can also be good allies for your garden, including blackbirds and song thrushes, which primarily feed on slugs, snails, and other garden-threatening animals. To welcome them, you’ll have to share your fruits and berries in your garden, but it’s worth it!

Prioritize morning watering: if slugs love moisture, dry soil will not attract them. So make a habit of watering your plants in the morning so that the surface of the soil dries out throughout the day and does not attract slugs in the evening.

Protect your plants with barriers: After planting young plants, surround your plants with barriers to prevent slugs from attacking your young plants. The bell-based barrier effectively prevents slugs from getting there. Other methods are to surround your small vegetable gardens and plants with copper strips or lava rocks to create a kind of protective barrier over which the slugs cannot pass.
Slugs also tend to avoid rough surfaces. In fact, in the garden and vegetable patch, a mulch based on a layer of crushed eggshells, of wood ash, cocoa pods or pine needles is also effective as a protective barrier against slugs, snails and other gastropods. Simply by recycling your waste, you will build an effective slug barrier! In addition, the wood ash that comes directly from your fireplace also works as a fertilizer rich in calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, which is ideal for the growth of your flowers, your shrubs, your fruit trees and all the other plants in your home. garden. Be careful, however, to prioritize ash from natural and untreated wood, otherwise it risks damaging the health of your soil.

Avoid chemical repellents

According to an article from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, chemicals interfere with the proper functioning of the garden by eliminating “insects useful for the pollination of flowers, plants or auxiliary insects”, thus degrading the quality of the soil, and so on. Chemicals can also have adverse health effects if they touch humans. This does not mean, however, that there is nothing you can do to protect your plants and flowers from garden pests as there are many environmentally friendly and inexpensive alternatives to chemical repellents that you can make at home. You probably already have many of the ingredients in your house!

Instead, opt for potato slices

Got a few extra potatoes? Above all, do not throw them away. With a plank of wood, you will have an effective slug trap in a few minutes. In the evening, place slices of raw potatoes under a wooden board to attract slugs. Then, the next morning, you can pick them up and place them well away from your garden.

The essential coffee grounds

Coffee grounds are a real ally that should not be overlooked when you are gardening. Not only is it a natural fertilizer for plants, it also deters slugs, pests, and snails. The trick is simple: save your coffee grounds, let them dry, and then sprinkle a thin layer of this miracle ingredient at the base of your plants to repel caffeine-hating slugs. By simply recycling your food waste, you will get rid of the slugs that are invading your garden once and for all!

Or even beer

Much like the potato solution, beer will attract any slug in your garden. Place a small saucer or container filled with beer at ground level, and the slugs, attracted by the smell, will drown in it. On the other hand, this trick is almost too productive and may do more harm than good: Beer traps also attract and kill animals beneficial to your garden such as hedgehogs and insects.

Plant fresh mint

Another reason to have this herb in your home! Not only is mint wonderful to have on hand for cooking, but it is also an auxiliary plant, in other words a natural repellant to plant in your garden alongside others to scare away slugs, as well as snails, because they hate its smell.

Make a herbal concoction from your garden

Besides mint, there are many naturally repellent plants whose scent scares slugs away. Among them, sage, thyme and verbena are effective. You can simply plant them, or make a spray herbal tea. For the latter, here is a simple and effective recipe:

• Bring 12 centiliters of water to the boil,
• Add 125 grams of fresh leaves from one of the herbs mentioned above,
• let steep overnight.
• The next day, pour this liquid into a spray bottle and diffuse it gradually in the soil of potted plants and on the soil of your garden.

Last option, an organic repellent

If you don’t have the time or the energy to make these recipes yourself, here is our selection of natural slug repellants that do not pollute and are not toxic to other animals:

See also: The best natural fly control recipes

Video by Aurore Emonnot