Slugs are the bane of gardeners’ lives, regularly topping surveys of garden pests. They munch the new growth of precious plants, demolish seedlings overnight and munch irregularly-shaped holes in leaves, stems, flowers, tubers and bulbs and potatoes, leaving their silvery slime trails behind.
Slugs are active for most of the year but are a particular problem in spring, when there’s plenty of young growth for them to eat. They are mostly active after dark, especially when it’s warm and damp. In hot, dry weather they bury themselves in the soil or hide in cool, dark places to avoid dehydrating.
There are over 40 species of slugs in the UK. Not all slugs eat live plants, however – many of the larger ones eat decaying or dead plant material and they are an important part of the composting process.
Despite your best efforts, some losses to slugs are inevitable. Accept that your garden is never going to be slug free, and find ways to work around this.
Make sure you prioritise the protection of the most vulnerable plants – all seedlings, new growth on most herbaceous plants, and all parts of especially susceptible plants such as delphiniums, hostas and dahlias. If you’re growing plants in pots, make sure there isn’t a ‘bridge’ of leaves from one plant to another, as slugs can travel from pot to pot this way.
Sow extra seeds so you have seedlings waiting in the wings to replace any that are eaten by slugs, and grow more than you need so you still have some crops left over after a slug attack. And add plenty of slug-resistant plants (see our list below) to keep damage to a minimum.
There are many options for controlling slugs. The best approach is to combine several methods, starting early in spring. Here are some ways to controlling slugs in your garden, some of them recommended in a survey of readers of BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine.
Slugs can be a real nuisance in any garden, but they seem to take a particular liking to delicate flowers like the alpine storks bill. These slimy critters can quickly chew through the tender leaves and petals, leaving unsightly holes and damage behind. If you’ve noticed slugs munching away on your prized alpine storks bill flowers, it’s time to take action!
In this comprehensive guide we will walk through everything you need to know to get rid of slugs on alpine storks bill flowers and protect these beauties for the long run.
Understanding Slugs and Their Impact on Alpine Storks Bill Flowers
Before we get into solutions let’s take a quick look at what makes slugs the enemy of alpine storks bill flowers
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Slugs are slimy, soft-bodied gastropods that thrive in damp conditions. They are most active at night and on cloudy, wet days.
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These pests use a rasping mouthpart called a radula to chew and feed on plant matter like leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits.
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Slugs particularly enjoy munching on tender, delicate plants like the alpine storks bill. They can devour flowers, seedlings, and young foliage rapidly.
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The holes, wilting, and overall damage slugs cause can weaken, stunt, or even kill alpine storks bill plants. An infestation can destroy an entire flower bed.
So it’s clear these sneaky slugs can spell disaster for your alpine storks bill patch if left unchecked!
Effective Ways to Eliminate Slugs from Alpine Storks Bill Flowers
Here are some of the top methods for controlling slugs on alpine storks bill flowers safely and effectively:
1. Handpick the slugs
Go slug hunting! Check under pots and in moist, hidden spots around your alpine storks bill plants. Pick slugs off by hand (use gloves!) and drop them into a container of soapy water to kill them. Do this daily, especially after wet weather. Handpicking is simple, non-toxic pest control.
2. Use beer traps
Slugs gravitate toward beer. Set out shallow containers (like yogurt cups) filled with beer near your flowers. Slugs will crawl in and drown. Empty and refill the traps daily. You can also use this beer slug soup as fertilizer!
3. Sprinkled diatomaceous earth
This powdery natural substance absorbs the protective mucus coating on slugs, dehydrating them. Apply a ring of diatomaceous earth around alpine storks bill to block slugs. Reapply after rain. Wear a mask when handling.
4. Copper tape barriers
Slugs hate copper! Copper foil tape emits a tiny electrical charge when slugs cross over, repelling them. Use this tape to circle planting beds, pots, or affected areas. Keep it tight and snug to the ground.
5. Clean up habitats
Eliminate hiding spots like piles of debris, mulch, and weeds around your alpine storks bill flowers. This gives slugs fewer moist places to harbor in during the day. Keep things tidy!
6. Water carefully
Don’t overwater, as excess moisture fosters slug populations. Let soil dry out a bit between waterings. Promote drainage. Drier conditions deter slugs.
7. Coffee grounds
Used coffee grounds can deter slugs – sprinkle them around your flowers. The gritty texture and caffeine apparently bother slugs. Replenish the grounds after rain.
8. Eggshells
Crushed eggshells are an abrasive natural slug deterrent. Scatter them around your alpine storks bill to obstruct slugs. The sharp edges also seem to bother them.
9. Natural predators
Attract slug predators like birds, frogs, snakes, and beetles to your garden for natural pest control. Put out shallow water dishes, bird houses, frog ponds, etc. to invite them in.
Prevent Slugs from Returning to Your Alpine Storks Bill Flowers
Prevention is the best medicine when it comes to recurrent slug issues. Here are some tips:
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Check for slug eggs in the soil – these look like tiny pearls. Remove them to prevent future generations of slugs.
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Apply new mulch sparingly, as slugs love to hide in it.
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Keep foliage and flowers dry by watering at the base of alpine storks bill plants.
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Surround flowers with sharp debris like crushed eggshells, lava rock, or diatomaceous earth.
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Rotate repellent plants like fennel, marigolds, and lavender in your beds.
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Consider investing in slug-resistant alpine storks bill varieties.
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Cover young sprouts with copper mesh or other physical barriers to protect them.
Be Vigilant and Take Action
With their voracious appetites and ability to reproduce rapidly, slugs can seem like a never-ending battle in the garden. But by taking a multi-pronged approach of removal, prevention, and deterrents, you can successfully protect your precious alpine storks bill flowers from these slimy menaces.
Check susceptible plants daily, especially the flowers, new growth, and seedlings slugs love to munch. At the first sign of damage, take action right away using the techniques outlined above. A diligent, proactive approach is the best way to safeguard your alpine storks bill flowers from slug devastation. With some persistence, you can outsmart these pesky garden pests!
How to control slugs
Ultimately, the best thing you can do to control slugs in your garden is to create a healthy ecosystem. Create lots of habitats for slug predators – hedges, shrubs (especially those with berries) and trees will all attract birds such as blackbirds and thrushes, which eat slugs (and snails). If you have room, a wildlife pond is a great addition to your garden – the newts, frogs and toads that use it will also devour slugs. Laying a slat down will attract slow worms, which eat a lot of slugs. Encourage wildlife in to your garden by creating a small hole in a fence so frogs, toads, slow worms and other species, such as hedgehogs, can travel freely between your plot and neighbouring ones. Create a log or leaf pile, or a large open compost heap, where they can make a home.
Healthy soil produces healthy plants that are much more able to withstand slug damage – slugs tend to attack plants that are already weakened in some way. So mulch your garden with homemade compost, composted green waste or well-rotted manure to support healthy soil. If you don’t make your own compost, check out our comprehensive guide to getting started, which also includes a roundup of the best compost bins to buy.
Use organic slug pellets
Slug pellets that contain metaldehyde kill slugs, but they also kill the animals that eat them, such as birds and hedgehogs. They have now been banned as a result. Sales of metaldehyde slug pellets ended in March 2021 and stocks must be disposed of by 31 March 2022. Pellets made from ferric phosphate are just as effective but are apparently less harmful to wildlife and are approved for use by organic growers. Scatter the pellets on the soil as soon as you can before tender young growth appears. Bear in mind, however, that if you scatter them liberally, you will ultimately get fewer predators coming to eat the slugs in your garden – leaving you reliant on pellets. Therefore use the pellets sparingly, around particularly susceptible plants, for example.
- Buy organic slug pellets from Amazon, Gardening Naturally and Waitrose
HOW TO GET RID OF SLUGS ✨ Frankie Flowers
FAQ
How do I get rid of slugs around my flowers?
What can I spray on my plants to keep slugs away?
What’s the best thing to stop slugs eating my plants?
How do you keep slugs away from plants?
Use crushed eggshells, nutshells, sharp sand, grit, pine needles or thorny cuttings to create protective barriers. Use them to make a circle around a plant that has been affected by munching. Slugs find the gritty edges uncomfortable against their soft flesh. You can use straw as a barrier for slugs in a garden 4.
Does spraying slugs kill a plant?
The spray literally melts the pests before your eyes. Gardeners who use this method believe that the dead slug bodies help deter other slugs from moving into the area. As long as you’re not spraying zillions of slugs every night, the solution shouldn’t affect plantings.
Are slugs bad for plants?
Slugs cause serious damage to vegetable plants, annuals and perennial flowers. In the blink of an eye, they can destroy an entire crop of lettuce, or chew hole after hole in cucumber plants, tomato plants and more. If that wasn’t bad enough, they can decimate the foliage of perennials beyond repair.
Can you put slug pellets in a plant saucer?
If you use slug pellets in your pots then make sure to sprinkle them around your plants, and in the plant saucer as well. Oftentimes slugs will hide between the pots and the plant saucer as it is a dark and moist environment.