For people who store vegetables, fruits, potatoes and other products in the cellar, the urgent question of how to get rid of slugs in the basement often becomes urgent. Along with other pests, these land mollusks can cause significant damage, since their diet includes plant fruits and root crops. Although the slug does not eat much fruit pulp, it still damages the outer layer of the fruit or vegetable, causing it to spoil.

Grocery cellars are favorite places for slugs to live and breed. Here the mollusks find the necessary nutrition; in the basements there is a favorable temperature regime for the habitat of these pests and a humid environment, which is necessary for their normal existence. On the walls of the cellar, where drops of dew, water, and dampness occur, slugs will definitely appear soon.

Who are slugs and where do they come from?

Questions about what slugs are, where they come from in cellars, and whether it is difficult to get rid of them if they have already settled in the basement or basement are of interest to many owners of houses and cottages. According to the biological classification, the slug is a land gastropod that does not have a shell. Most common in middle climate zones. The habitat consists of territories with an average temperature of +15...+19°C from spring to autumn.

The slug has an elongated body, slightly flattened on top. In the front part there are tentacles that can retract and extend. At their tips there are several types of receptors: optical, olfactory and gustatory. The mouth is also located on the front of the head. It is equipped with a jaw with a sharp chitinous edge. Using its jaw and tongue, which has sharp teeth like a grater, the slug bites and grinds food.

Behind the head is the mantle, which is a denser part of the slug's body. This padded collar protects the lungs. On the right side of the mantle there is a respiratory opening, which is clearly visible in large individuals. The anus is also located nearby. Behind the mantle, the longest part of the body is the leg, with which the mollusk moves.

This type of mollusk is considered omnivorous, although most often slugs can be found on roots, leaves, fruits, vegetables, and also on berries. In open areas, in gardens and beds, mollusks find shelter under leaves, stones, and on the shady side of trees.

Cellars for slugs provide favorable conditions for life and reproduction. If in open areas the slug is forced to fall into winter suspended animation due to a drop in temperature (in severe frosts, individuals die, but egg laying does not disappear), then in the basements the temperature regime allows the mollusks to feed and reproduce all year round.

Slugs are characterized by cross-fertilization. Considering that they are hermaphrodites, the mating dance leads to the fertilization of both individuals, after which they lay eggs, hiding them in loose soil to a depth of 2-3 cm. In the cellar, the mollusks crawl into bowls, small depressions, pipes, drainage holes, or leave eggs between fruits or vegetables.

What types of slugs are there?

There are many varieties of slugs. The main parameters by which they are classified are:

• size - from 2 mm to 30 cm (the longest variety is considered the black slug);
• color (uniform, spotted, light, dark, etc.);
• habitat (functional, for example, garden or forest, or geographical - European);
• preferred diet (cabbage, grape slug, etc.)

Cellars are most often inhabited by small varieties of mollusks, having a body length from a few millimeters to 4-7 cm.

Damage from slugs in the home and household

Considering that these mollusks also feed on economic crops, they cause significant damage to fruits and products stored in basements. If it is not possible to ensure the required level of dry air and walls in the basement, then the fight against slugs in the cellar becomes systematic, because it is almost impossible to completely remove them from a damp and shaded room. Shellfish do not cause any sanitary or hygienic harm, but fruits damaged by them are subject to accelerated rotting and spoilage.

How to get rid of slugs in a cellar or basement at home

Today, various methods are used to remove slugs from basements and cellars. Here, both chemical poisonous substances and methods that are completely harmless to the products in the basement can be used. All methods of getting rid of slugs can be divided into several groups:

To permanently remove slugs from the cellar, folk methods, chemicals and other methods may not help if they are not combined with constant prevention. Most often, to solve the problem, drying is needed on a regular basis, because many cellars constantly get wet for various structural reasons, for example, when there is no quality ventilation or the specifics of the soil contribute to the constant penetration of moisture. Gradually, combining destructive and preventive measures, you can get rid of slugs for a long time.

Creating barriers

In order to decide on effective ways to deal with slugs, it is important to understand what these mollusks are afraid of and what environment would be most unacceptable for them. The lower part of the slug's body is tender and vulnerable. The clam will not crawl on surfaces that could injure its ventral surface. Therefore, the simplest way to prevent slugs from crawling into a particular room is to create barriers at the points of their entry.

To form barriers that are insurmountable for slugs, you can use a mixture of various fine construction waste (crushed brick, expanded clay, coarse sand, etc.). Most often, salt, mustard powder, ash, and crushed shells are used to create such barriers on farms near cellars. The path for slugs to enter the room is effectively blocked with simple lime.

This method is only effective in protecting the basement from slugs entering it, but does not get rid of shellfish already in it. Therefore, it can be called preventive. When pouring this or that product, it is important to find out where exactly the pests are entering the basement. The barrier must be continuous. Considering that the listed substances are easily swept away or blown away by gusts of wind, it is necessary to regularly check whether the integrity of the obstacle is damaged.

Chemicals

In order to get rid of slugs in cellars, chemicals are not often used. This is due to the fact that owners do not consider it advisable to use toxic substances in places where food products are openly stored. Only after you have failed to reduce or destroy the basement population of mollusks using other methods should you turn to chemicals.

Insecticides designed to kill insects are not effective in controlling slugs. Here you will need drugs such as molluscicides. Most often, the main toxic substance in their composition is copper sulfate in such a dosage as to effectively kill slugs. Popular drugs include:

• UliCide;
• Patrol;
• Anti-slug;
• Storm;
• Metaldehyde.

These products are intended primarily for the destruction of slugs and snails in beds, vegetable gardens and other open areas. When using them in a basement or cellar, you must study the instructions in detail and follow them exactly. There are also bio-products against slugs that are less harmful to the environment, such as Ferramol. However, their cost is quite high, which is why the use of such products is not entirely advisable in basements, where other methods can be used quite effectively.

When looking for a more gentle method of removal than a chemical one, how to remove slugs from the cellar without the use of aggressive chemicals, you should pay attention to the installation of fairly simple but effective traps for mollusks. To create such traps you do not need to buy any special substances or devices. The idea is to lure the slugs to one place where they can be easily collected by hand and removed from the basement area.

The first method of installing a trap is suitable for those cellars where it is possible to raise supplies high above the floor level. Boxes of apples or pears can be placed on shelves. Condensation forms most actively on the cellar floor, and slugs tend to the wettest areas of the room.

To enhance the formation of dew on the basement floor, it needs to be covered with film or expanded clay. The very next morning, having lifted the covering material, under it you can find many mollusks living in the cellar. To destroy them, all that remains is to collect them and take them out into the sun. Such regular collection can significantly reduce the damage caused by shellfish in the cellar.

Another type of slug trap is beer bait. To create it you need a standard plastic glass. It is dug into the floor of the cellar so that mollusks can crawl into it without hindrance. Then the glass is half filled with beer, which is sure to attract the smell of shellfish.

• the basement is completely cleared of products stored in it;
• it is necessary to ensure sufficient sealing of the room, seal all cracks, close window openings, and the entry point;
• personal protection is provided (overall clothing, gloves, goggles or mask for the face and eyes);
• the required number of sulfur bombs is installed on the fireproof supports, taking into account the size of the basement;
• after setting the wicks on fire, you must quickly leave the cellar, closing the doors or hatch;
• the smoldering of the checkers lasts about 1.5 hours, after which the cellar must be left completely closed for 2 days;
• after opening, the basement needs to be well ventilated (often you have to pump in air using fans);
• at the end the room is cleaned, after which it can be used for storing food.

Folk ways to fight slugs

• solution of ammonia (per 1 liter 2 tsp);
• coffee grounds, which repel shellfish;
• a mixture of ash and tobacco dust;
• The basement floor is strewn with fir needles.

There are a large number of folk ways to repel slugs. Such recipes are simple and available in summer cottages.

Preventing slugs

But it is most effective to carry out preventive measures against slugs. Before bringing food into the room for storage, you need to dry the cellar thoroughly. The basement can get very wet at any time, for example, due to heavy rains and soil moisture, and drying must be done regularly, for which special equipment can be used.

Everyone knows how much time, money and effort is spent on protecting the future harvest from harmful insects. In cool and rainy summers, this problem becomes even more acute, as the army of pests is replenished with slugs. Snails, which have lost their shell over the years of evolution, are very afraid of sunlight and crawl out of their hiding places into garden beds mainly only at night. After their invasion, there are perforated leaves, damaged stems and fruits with traces of shiny mucus. To preserve the harvest, you need to know how to properly deal with slugs in the country house and garden.

How do slugs live?

A gastropod, very similar in appearance to a snail, is called a slug. Its translucent body has no limbs and moves by contracting the muscles of the sole. There are tentacles on the head that act as sensory organs. Each cell secretes a small amount of secretion, which prevents the slug's body from drying out completely, promotes its movement and repels some predators.

Ground slugs are very afraid of sunlight and prefer dark and damp places. These pests reproduce best at temperatures from +15°C to +19°C. During the rainy, hot summer or warm, humid autumn, reproduction occurs most intensively.

In dry weather, slugs in the garden become inactive and their activity decreases. Mollusks tend to climb into a dark place in order to retain the moisture in their body longer. Some of them build earthen cocoons, holding soil particles together with their own mucus, and wait there until favorable conditions arise.

Damage from slugs

You can meet a slug in any region with a mild climate and average or high humidity. This gastropod pest successfully sneaks into the most inaccessible places and conducts its destructive activities there. In the garden and vegetable bed, in the cellar and basement, you can stumble upon whole hordes of lickers.

Most of all, the pest loves to feast on the fresh greens of young plants, but it will not refuse fleshy bell peppers or sweet strawberries and raspberries. As soon as the first representative of the voracious family is noticed in the garden, a decisive fight must begin. Otherwise, in a maximum of a month, the mollusks will fill the entire area, and it will be very difficult to get rid of them.

The main harm caused by slugs is the damage to cultivated plants that serve as food for the pest.

The following plants may be affected by shellfish:

• strawberries, raspberries and other berry crops;
• vegetables - cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes in the greenhouse and open ground;
• fruit trees;
• seedlings and salad greens.

In addition, gastropods infect other plants with fungal diseases. Spores of powdery mildew and gray rot, along with mucus, settle on the leaves and fruits of healthy crops. As a result, the plant becomes sick and dies.

What are slugs afraid of in the garden?

When starting to fight slugs, you need to know what they are afraid of and what weather conditions the mollusks cannot tolerate.

Slugs are very afraid of hot, dry weather and cannot tolerate exposure to sunlight at all. This is understandable, because the body of these animals consists of 98% water. Therefore, when starting to fight slugs, you first need to clear the beds of excess grass so that they are ventilated and moisture does not stagnate between the plants. It is advisable to remove weed thickets not only in the garden plot, but also around it.

It has been noticed that mollusks never approach onions, garlic, sage, oregano, mustard, caraway and geranium - slugs have a highly developed sense of smell. By planting one of the above crops next to a vegetable bed, you can protect your crops from pest invasion.

Mollusks cannot jump or fly, do not move very quickly and are not able to overcome even the smallest obstacles. Therefore, one of the methods of combating gastropods is to mulch the soil with ash or sharp pebbles, pine or pine needles.

Natural enemies

There are many ways to control slugs, from harmlessly repelling the pests to completely destroying them with chemicals. Birds, frogs, hedgehogs and other living creatures that live in their summer cottages provide enormous assistance to gardeners in exterminating shellfish. Therefore, it is necessary to create all conditions for the life of these useful animals and in every possible way lure them to the territory of your dacha.

Biocontrol agents

The product can be used from early spring to late autumn - the main thing is that the soil has time to warm up to +5°C and is not too dry. The drug is absolutely safe for people and the environment, has a long-lasting effect, is effective and easy to use.

Nematodes are living organisms that remain dormant until a certain point. Even in a cold place they can live no more than one month.

Biological slug control agents are commercially available in the form of a powder or spray. The powder is diluted with water according to the instructions and watered over areas where mollusks accumulate. Nematodes multiply quickly and destroy slugs. With the help of the drug, you will be able to get rid of most of the pests within a week. The disadvantage of the biological product is its short shelf life.

Traps

One of the most humane methods of controlling slugs after hand collection is to set traps, purchased from garden stores or homemade.

The trap is designed as follows: two holes are made in the upper part of the plastic glass into which tubes are inserted. Bait is placed inside the container, which can be pieces of vegetables. The traps are distributed evenly throughout the bed, trying to place them in the most shady place. The slug, moving through the tube for food, falls to the bottom of the glass.

Devices for collecting slugs can be made with your own hands. It is enough to stack old boards or tiles, flower pots turned upside down in a dark, damp place and spread out the bait. In the morning all that remains is to collect the gastropods and take them further away from the site.

It has long been noted that slugs love beer. You can set traps using this well-known product. Small containers are buried not far from the garden bed so that their edges are at ground level, and beer is poured into them. The height of the jar should be such that a slug that has eaten the intoxicating bait and fallen into the container cannot get out.

Obstacles

Barriers placed in the path of pests and protecting beds or single plants allow you to quickly and easily get rid of slugs. A strip 15 cm wide is covered with sharp gravel or crushed bricks, coniferous or pine needles, eggshells or other bulk materials that can block the path of mollusks.

Sprinkling paths and the ground around plants with lime is considered a proven folk remedy. It is better to do this treatment of the area against slugs in the evening, before the pests crawl into the beds in search of food.

Plastic gutters installed along vegetable beds can be used as barriers.

Garden stores sell special fencing coated with copper. The fact is that when crossing a tape made of copper, the slug receives a small electric shock. This repels pests and they move to another place.

Traditional methods of fighting shellfish

Experienced gardeners know how to deal with gastropods by making various decoctions or using regular food products.

• A decoction of wormwood or fern will repel pests. To prepare the mixture, place freshly harvested plants in a bucket, add cold water and stir occasionally. After the mixture has fermented thoroughly, water the pest areas with it.
• Slugs are afraid of the smell of coffee, mustard powder, vinegar, and ammonia. All these substances can be used to control pests. It is better to cultivate the soil in dry weather, since after watering or rain the products will lose their repellent properties.
• Shellfish are incredibly attracted to the smell of citrus fruits. If you place half a large grapefruit on the garden bed in the evening, peel side up, then in the morning all that remains is to throw out the slugs from the eaten glass.

Chemicals

In large garden areas where it is not possible to control snails with repellents and traps, chemicals are used. This method of struggle is perhaps the most effective of all those previously listed. However, it should be remembered that all insecticides are toxic and any treatment of the garden with chemicals harms animals and plants.

The Swiss drug "Meta", used all over the world for more than 100 years and recognized as the most effective among analogues, is produced in our country under the name "Thunderstorm". The destructive effect of the insecticide is provided by metaldehyde in combination with additives that attract slugs and snails. Once in the digestive tract of the mollusk, the chemical completely dehydrates the body.

The granules are scattered between the beds, creating a protective barrier. The product can be used in any weather, as the granules are not afraid of moisture. In addition, additives that attract pests repel birds, which makes the use of the product safe for the feathered inhabitants of the garden.

Another domestic remedy for slugs, based on the action of metaldehyde, is “Slug Eater”. The drug is easy to use, has a protective effect lasting up to three weeks, and avoids a decrease in yield and loss of product presentation.

Prevention

Work to prevent slug attacks begins with the onset of spring. Experienced gardeners recommend taking the following measures to prevent the appearance of pests:

• limit the area with plantings to a strip of wood ash or mustard;
• Carefully weed out weeds and remove excess plants to ensure sunlight reaches the garden bed;
• in the fall, carry out deep digging of the soil to destroy the homes of mollusks and destroy eggs;
• feed birds and hedgehogs;
• Carry out even watering, avoiding waterlogging of the soil.

As you can see, preventive measures do not require a lot of time and money. This is much better than poisoning the soil and garden plants with chemicals.

It is difficult to choose the most effective of all the methods of fighting snails and slugs in the country, so it is advisable to use several methods at once. It is possible and necessary to fight against mollusks. If it is not possible to completely rid the garden of pests, then reducing their population will undoubtedly bring tangible benefits to the plantings, and even in a rainy summer will allow you to get a full harvest.

There are many types of terrestrial mollusks in nature. Some of them live everywhere - in forests, in damp meadows, near swamps, feeding on mushrooms and half-rotten vegetation. Others hide in shelters and hunt for earthworms. And still others live almost all year round in garden plots, where there is always food and shelter for them: from spring to autumn - in the garden and vegetable garden, in winter - in the cellar or vegetable storage.

From all misfortunes. How to deal with slugs

There are many types of terrestrial mollusks in nature. Some of them live everywhere - in forests, in damp meadows, near swamps, feeding on mushrooms and half-rotten vegetation. Others (called “cave robbers”), found mainly in the Caucasus, hide in shelters and hunt for earthworms. And still others live almost all year round in garden plots, where there is always food and shelter for them: from spring to autumn - in the garden and vegetable garden, in winter - in the cellar or vegetable storage. And these slugs “encroach” on the fruits of our labor: vegetables, root crops, berries and flowers. And therefore it is important for gardeners and gardeners to know how to deal with them..

Land mollusks include snails and naked slugs.. In our country, among shell mollusks, perhaps only large grape snail (Helix pomatia) or small grape snail (Helix vulgaris). In the southern regions there are also drought-resistant snails of the genus Theba, living mainly on garden trees. With a sharp increase in numbers, these snails can cause serious damage to gardens. However, they are fairly easy to manage by hand picking or using simple traps such as sweet compote.

The main enemies of our gardeners are naked slugs. They slowly, as if caring for a plant, cover it with moisturizing mucus, tear off soft, succulent tissue, reducing the yield and worsening its quality.

The most numerous, widespread, voracious and mobile species - reticulated slug (Deroceras reticulatum). Its body is brown with a mesh pattern (white and dark spots), length is 2.5-3 cm. It severely damages vegetables and root crops; in cabbage, it damages not only the leaves, but even the heads of cabbage inside.

Very similar to him field slug (Deroceras agreste). Only the body of this slug is lighter (cream) and without a pattern. He prefers meadows, swampy places, ditches to beds. They rarely crawl into the garden - if the plot is low and weeds are raging in it.

Small in size (2.5 cm), dark in color (brown or black), cold-resistant and the most moisture-loving species - smooth slug (Deroceras laeve), it lives mainly in the middle zone and northern regions. It feeds mainly on winter bread. There is little harm caused by this slug in the garden.

Unlike him melon slug (Parmacella iberia), which lives in the south of the country, damages watermelons, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, as well as tomatoes and cabbage. It is very prolific, especially in wet years, and tolerates drought and heat by going into the soil and, as it were, falling asleep during bad weather.

Large individuals can be found in cellars and basements yellow slug (Limax flavus) up to 10 cm long. It feeds on vegetables, potatoes, root vegetables, garlic and onion bulbs, and flowers. There you can also find large European slug (Limax maximus). This large (up to 15 cm in length!), sedentary pest of household supplies is very attached to its “place of residence”, does not like change and can settle in your cellar for a long time if it is not cool enough. The large European slug is also found in greenhouses, especially winter ones.

Slugs can be called "night robbers", since they prefer to act unnoticed, in the dark. They come out of their hiding places to “robbery” at 21:00 and hide after 2:00 am. Therefore, when gardeners notice holes in the leaves and pits in the fruits, they often think that caterpillars have “worked” on them. Since slugs scrape their food using several thousand teeth located on their grater tongue, the damage they leave behind is easy to recognize. For example, in tomato and cucumber fruits, cabbage forks, and root vegetables, slugs make holes that expand deeper, and the leaves “make holes,” as a rule, in the middle, without affecting the large veins. The “tricks” of slugs are also easy to recognize by the silvery stripes of mucus and piles of stringy excrement left on the leaves and fruits.

Slugs begin their invasion of gardens in the spring.: young seedlings and germinating seeds are attacked by young mollusks hatched from eggs. Young animals, despite their small size, are surprisingly voracious and can absorb more food than their own weight. If you do not take protective measures, then after 2 months the pests are ready to reproduce and lay eggs. And by autumn, especially if the summer is wet, the next peak in the number of slugs is observed.

But the harm of shellfish is not only that they spoil the harvest of almost all vegetables, with the exception of hot peppers. On their viscous covers, slugs carry infection, and in the digestive tract they carry spores of phytopathogenic fungi, for example, gray mold pathogens, which pass completely intact through the intestines.

The fight against mollusks began a long time ago. Back in 1910, the future famous scientist N.I. Vavilov, while preparing his thesis, thoroughly studied the “habits” of naked slugs. Many of his recommendations are still valid today. Let's remember: some of them.

Do not create “cozy” conditions for slugs on your site, remove all crop residues that could become food for slugs (especially during their breeding season). In addition, under plant debris, slugs can more easily tolerate unfavorable conditions (drought, slight frost).

Don't forget about weeding. In thickets of weeds, especially near greenhouses and greenhouses, slugs tolerate heat and bright sun without significant losses.

Here are some modern measures to protect against slugs:.

To eradicate weeds, treat the area with a continuous herbicide (Hurricane Forte, Glyphos). In areas that are too damp or located in low relief, carry out reclamation: dig ditches along the perimeter of the area as wide and as deep as a spade, make drainage wells (turf holes 60 cm deep, 40 cm in diameter), fill them with a mixture of pebbles or crushed stone from coarse sand.

Vegetable beds fertilized with organic matter are ideal habitats for slugs. And in wet years, in a fertile area, nothing prevents slippery pests from being complete masters. To minimize crop damage, fence the beds with pieces of plastic or iron sheets, and build traps. Plant seedlings, especially cabbage, at an earlier date: stronger and rooted seedlings suffer less from slugs. Make rollers of soil 5 cm high around the plants: it is more convenient to pour water into the resulting “saucers”, apply fertilizers, and the moisture does not spread over the surface. After watering, loosen the soil around the plants and sprinkle with ash. You can fence the plants with rings cut from 5-liter plastic water bottles.

Avoid dense plantings of vegetable crops: the more space there is for cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, the less likely it is for air to stagnate and dampness to appear.

Take advantage of frogs and toads, who readily eat slugs. To attract “wahs” to the site, place low, up to 3-4 cm, containers with water between plantings or near the beds.

Metaldehyde has been used to kill snails and slugs all over the world for over 100 years.. It decomposes in the soil into carbon dioxide and water, is safe for earthworms and beneficial insects, and the blue color of the granules repels birds.

Based on this substance, products have been created specifically intended for amateur gardeners, for example, Groza. Its granules do not fall on the plants, but simply create a protective barrier against shellfish. Slugs, trying to “break through the defenses” and crawling through the Thunderstorm granules, burn the glands that secrete the mucus they need vitally. As a result, pests cannot move, feed on plants and quickly die.

It is better to carry out treatment at dusk, before the slugs begin to emerge from their hiding places.. In the spring, when pests are just beginning to become active, first place the drug granules in moist, shady places where slugs gather, hiding from the drought. Then scatter them around the plants or between the rows. The bait contained in the drug attracts mollusks, and they find it themselves. Therefore, I do not recommend placing granules in piles; it is better to distribute them evenly and little by little, this way you will be able to treat a larger area. The granules do not mold and remain active in humid weather. Even two weeks of rain will not harm them.

In the second half of summer (from late July to early August), the drug must be applied again to destroy the slugs before egg laying begins. This preventive treatment helps to significantly reduce the number of slugs in the next season, and thereby protects young seedlings in the spring. And one more piece of advice: to prevent young slugs from damaging lettuce or carrot seedlings, apply Groza at the same time as sowing.

How to get rid of slugs on your property

Significant damage to the crop is caused by slugs. An invasion of slugs and snails in the garden is a disaster for summer residents. It will not be possible to completely destroy these creatures - if you destroy your own, they will crawl from your neighbors. Mollusks cause a lot of trouble, especially in rainy weather. Therefore, it is necessary to know and apply all methods of combating them.

Place weeded weeds in a compost heap away from cultivated crops.

Clear the area of ​​boards and stones - favorite places for slugs to hide and breed during the day.

Mow the grass in areas adjacent to the garden.

Systematically loosen the soil the next day after watering. This will get rid of weeds and create uncomfortable conditions for pests.

After loosening, pollinate the soil with a mixture of tobacco dust and wood ash.

After harvesting, do not leave tops and weeds on the site - all in a compost heap or fire. This will deprive the slugs of feeding and shelter.

Do not allow children to play with snails, as they carry helminths.

Use the scent of certain plants to repel shellfish. They do not like thyme and parsley, garlic and sage, mustard and lavender, rosemary and ferns.

Sprinkle compost heaps or garbage dumps with coarse salt in the evening; it will destroy a lot of these pests.

Use water troughs by placing them on the soil. This obstacle will either scare you away or stop you - the mollusk will not get out of it.

Water the soil in greenhouses with garlic infusion.

For labor-intensive control of soft-bodied pests, recruit allies

Create conditions for frogs and toads - this could be a small pond and a stone grotto or cave where the amphibian will hide from the sun. They can be caught and moved to a new place of residence.

Snails and slugs are a hedgehog's favorite food. He can eat as much as he weighs in one night. You can attract a prickly friend with a treat - cheese, sausage. But milk can cause stomach upset in hedgehogs. In a secluded corner of the garden, a pile of brushwood will serve as a refuge for him. Make a house out of a box or boards. If you have a family of hedgehogs, they will save you from the unequal struggle with snails and slugs, as well as harmful insects. Give them a dish of clean water and a treat. They will definitely appear.
A number of birds also feed on protein foods from snails and slugs. Birdhouses and winter feeders will create a permanent habitat for them.

In the meantime, you have few allies and the repellent plants have not yet grown, resort to other methods.

Slugs and fighting them

You can use traps. Buy them beer or bring them fermented compote. And make a trap out of a plastic bottle so that they get in, but cannot get out and drown. Change the solution after two days.

Pests have an easily wounded surface. Prepare eggshells and shells; they should be crushed and scattered between the rows. Conifer needles will also work.

Sprinkle coarse sand in the path of slugs and snails.

Sawdust sticks to the mucous body and prevents them from moving - also a good way.

Make a protective strip of superphosphate or lime ten centimeters wide. They will not pass this obstacle.

Sometimes open circuits are used for weak electric current from a battery.

While there is no rain, prepare a mixture of about half a kilo of wood ash and a tablespoon of salt, dry mustard and ground pepper. Scatter between rows of plants and lightly loosen.

Safe spraying

Use three-day infusions of nettle and burdock. To do this, finely chop the plants and place them in lukewarm water.

They are also afraid of black coffee. A 0.1% solution affects them, causing them to flee. For greater effect, add brewed mustard and hot pepper.

Few people know that our children's favorite snails have 14,175 teeth! Only the shark has more. And why does such a cute and shell-protected mollusk need so many teeth? Yes, to grind everything “green” that gets in her way. In addition, snails not only cause great damage to our gardens, but are also carriers of worms and tapeworms. How do gardeners from different countries fight the invasion of these little gluttons? We learned about this by wandering around the World Wide Web of the Internet.

Let's start the review with the most humane methods of fighting snails and slugs:

1. Avoid dense plantings and weeds on your site. Mow the grass along the sides of the site in a timely manner and do not scatter various rubbish, bricks, boards... - among all this “good”, snails and slugs feel very comfortable. It’s better to place wet rags, bags, boards, plywood, cabbage leaves between the rows of vegetable crops - slugs like to crawl into such shelters for the day and here it will be easier to collect them.

2. Next to fruit and berry crops, it is useful to plant garlic, lavender, thyme, rosemary, mustard and some other plants that snails do not like. Beds with strawberries and tomatoes can be planted with parsley - it will repel snails.

3. Garbage dumps and compost heaps, which contain an abundance of rotting debris that attracts snails, can be sprinkled with coarse salt. This should be done in the evening, in dry weather, when the snails crawl out to graze. In the morning, you will find scatterings of dead snails on the compost heap, since they absolutely do not like anything associated with salt. Just do not overuse salt in flower beds and vegetable beds, as few plants tolerate severe soil salinity.

4. Attract birds, toads, frogs, ground beetles, and hedgehogs to your site. When you see a hedgehog at the dacha, treat it with milk, and then feed it daily, prepare a shelter for it, for example, in the form of a pile of brushwood in a secluded corner of the garden. And then slugs and snails will become a rarity, because they are hedgehogs’ favorite treat.

5. To attract toads and frogs, you can dig a small pond and pile a bunch of last year’s leaves nearby. These animals now often live in city parks and ponds, so you can catch a few and create comfortable conditions for them at your dacha. Toads can be given milk and fed with pieces of cookies and bread.

6. A non-toxic and cheap way to combat snails and slugs was proposed by one American woman: “Every spring I nurse orphaned ducklings and injured ducks. Their keen eyes and empty stomachs never miss an opportunity to profit from a slug or snail. But in areas of the garden where ducks are unwelcome guests, I use crushed river shells with sharp edges to repel slugs, which I scatter in ribbons between the beds. A bag of crushed shells lasts for several years.”

7. The action of the special ecological granular material Slug Stoppa Granules, which is scattered around the plants and is effective throughout the season, is based on the barrier principle. Granules create a physical barrier for slugs and snails: they absorb moisture and mucus, dry out the surface of their bodies, making it impossible for pests to move.

8. Physical barriers also include special plastic gutters that are attached along the perimeter of the ridges. Such gutters are filled with water, which serves as a mechanical barrier for slugs. Wide plastic rims with a bent edge are also available for sale, which are fixed in the ground around plants and keep snails and slugs away from the plant.

9. Any dry porous materials, as well as fine gravel, crushed shells and eggshells, are unpleasant surfaces for slugs and snails, so they are well suited as row filler. However, it should be borne in mind that in rainy weather their effectiveness is significantly reduced.

10. Strips of coarse sand, crushed eggshells or nut shells create a kind of prickly barriers that are insurmountable for snails and slugs. This protection option is quite suitable for seedlings of vegetables and young flower crops. And each specimen of large plants (delphinium, hosta, peony...) can be protected by surrounding it with a mini-ridge of coarse sand.

11. To protect strawberries from snails, sprinkle the ground with spruce needles or place a thick layer of spruce and pine paws on the surface of the beds; the needles fall off by themselves and serve as protection against snails; in addition, they protect the soil from drying out quickly and, finally, having rotted, they are useful as fertilizer. The frame of the legs at the same time serves as support for the berries and protects them from contact with the ground.

12. Dried nettle plants can be placed under tomato, pepper or eggplant plants, which slugs are big fans of. Slugs are afraid of them, and if there are a lot of nettles, they will prefer to avoid this place.

13. Mulching the ground near plants with sawdust is a good way to combat snails and slugs. Sawdust sticks well to slippery mollusks and they become breaded and stop moving.

14. Plant vegetables in raised beds or tubs, stake legumes, tomatoes and pumpkins in good time, use clear plastic covers (such as the bottom halves of large plastic water bottles) and plastic covers for young vulnerable plants - all this makes for desirable plants for slugs are physically less accessible.

15. Mechanical protection method. With the help of special plastic funnel-shaped limiters you can very effectively protect your plantings from snails and slugs. The funnel is installed around the young plant and protects its roots and shoots. In addition, such a funnel will ensure precise access of water to the roots of the plant when watering.

16. A sheet of plywood (15x15 cm) can be attached to a stick on which a large nut is screwed. Place a large sheet of plywood (18×18 cm) on this nut. Push a damp burdock leaf or a wet rag into the cracks between them. A large number of snails will crawl in there overnight. In the morning, destroy the pests.

17. Snails do not like places coated with tar. Shrubs can be protected from them by making a ring of cotton wool, an inch wide, at the base of the trunk, and covering it with tar or adhesive resin.

18. The simplest method - “manual collection” - is very effective, but requires almost daily labor. Snails should be collected in the evening or after rain, and then destroyed (for example, in a strong saline solution or boiling water) or taken somewhere away from gardens and cultivated plantings (this option is more humane, but also more labor-intensive).

19. Snails and slugs lay their eggs in the ground (somewhere under a shelter, bush, thick grass, etc.). And when digging the soil, you need to carefully look to see if there are clutches of snails. If there are, then they must be destroyed - crushed or buried deep.

20. The “drunk trap” method. A surprisingly simple way is to place containers of beer near the plants. Snails and slugs, it turns out, respect the foamy drink no less than we do. They crawl towards the tempting smell, and when they fall into a container of beer, they drown there. The main thing here is to install a sufficiently deep container, and not to pour the beer to the brim. For example, take a plastic water bottle, flatten one side so that it becomes flat and does not roll around, and pour beer (preferably dark) into it. Slugs, attracted by the smell of beer, crawl into the bottle and die there. This method is also used in a special snail trap.

21. Special traps for slugs and snails are a bowl covered with an umbrella-roof. The trap is installed so that the entrances are at ground level. The bowl is filled with beer, fruit juice or other bait (the tasty smell attracts snails and slugs), and the roof prevents rainwater and debris from getting inside. In the absence of such a trap, pour the bait into simple bowls from an old unnecessary set and dig it flush with the soil surface on the ridges and borders with the plants most beloved by snails. Check and empty traps regularly in the morning.

22. Ordinary cuttings of boards, pieces of slate or roofing felt, wet rags and burlap, linoleum, watermelon rinds, cabbage leaves, etc. are also quite suitable as snail traps - slugs like to crawl into such shelters for the day.

23. American gardeners recommend a very original way of catching slugs using grapefruits: just take half a grapefruit peel, cut a small hole in it and install this dome-shaped trap. The mollusks attracted by the smell will gather under the skin overnight, and in the morning all that remains is to collect and dispose of them.

24. A regular cup of coffee can also repel pests without harming your plants. Caffeine, in the form of an aqueous solution applied to soil or plant leaves, repels and kills slugs and snails, presumably by damaging their nervous systems. According to the observations of American scientists, a 1- or 2% solution kills even large individuals (although it discolors the leaves of some plants), and a 0.1% solution confuses pests, speeding up the heartbeat, and scares them away from the plantations. To get a 0.1 percent caffeine solution, you can, for example, dissolve a double dose of instant coffee in a cup of water. Coffee grounds can also be used to repel snails, but spraying with a caffeine solution is much more effective: slugs crawl away as soon as they come into contact with caffeine-treated soil. Caffeine can kill small snails and slugs, and scare away large ones from the garden plot. It is best to use caffeine for small gardens and areas. Unfortunately, it can affect not only snails and slugs, but also beneficial insects.

25. There are plants that slugs and snails do not like and try to avoid, and this is primarily garlic, as well as many (but not all!) aromatic plants (lavender, sage, santolina, thyme, rosemary, bay, etc.) . Garlic is used by manufacturers of special herbal infusions that repel slugs. Infusions of garlic, hot pepper, and mustard are well-known folk remedies for fighting slugs and snails. At home, 100 g of grated garlic is infused for 24 hours in a small volume of water, the resulting solution is diluted several times and the plants are sprayed with it.

26. Method of domestic gardeners: dissolve 50 g of dry mustard in 300 ml of water, let it brew for an hour, dilute another 3-4 times and spray the plants.

28. Destroy snails by placing them in a bucket with a strong solution of salt or lime. You can pollinate areas inhabited by snails with powdered superphosphate (300–400 g), slaked lime (300 g) or a mixture of lime and tobacco dust in a 1:1 ratio (200–250 g per 10 sq.m.).

29. Electrical control means. Self-adhesive copper tapes, headbands, or copper-coated covering material (brand name Shocka) are available at garden centers. Contact with copper gives the mollusks a slight electrical shock, so they do not cross such a copper barrier. Recently, headbands with a small battery have also appeared, which also give snails and slugs a small electric shock when crossing an obstacle.

“Chemical attack” methods propose to use the achievements of the chemical industry.

30. Metaldehyde (in Russia sold under the trademarks Groza and Meta). Apply no later than 20 days before harvest, at the rate of 40 g of granules per 10 square meters. m (see instructions on the package). You should not pour these granules in piles - it is more effective to place them at a distance of 10–15 cm from each other. Manufacturers claim that when used correctly, the product is completely harmless to people, pets and the environment, however, warnings are often found in the horticultural press. Metaldehyde should be stored and used with great care. Wash vegetables and herbs especially carefully if you have used metaldehyde in the garden.

31. Finely crushed iron sulfate mixed with sand or lime is sprinkled on the ground in the evening or in damp weather. Neither snails nor slugs will pass where iron sulfate is poured, since they die from touching this substance.

32. Abroad they do the following: they cover the flowerbeds with thin shingles, on which copper sulfate powder is poured, or they stretch ropes soaked in a solution of copper sulfate around the flowerbeds.

33. Spraying plants with copper-containing products (Hom, Oxyx, etc.), which are not washed off by rain for a long time. Snails do not die from it, but plants covered with blue copper stains become unattractive to snails.

34. A very effective remedy for fighting Bison snails. Lasts up to three months and is not washed off by rain.

35. You can pollinate the rows with slaked lime or superphosphate (200–300 g per 10 sq. m), sprinkle slaked lime around the greenhouses. Sprinkling the soil with lime is done in two steps, with a break of 10–15 minutes. During the first sprinkling, the snail protects itself from lime by secreting mucus, but with the second sprinkling, the snail is no longer able to secrete mucus, turns black and dies. By sprinkling the soil with lime for two days in a row, you can completely destroy all the snails.