How to deal with slugs and garden snails with folk remedies. How to deal with snails and slugs in the country: effective ways to protect the garden
Probably, there is no such person who, in childhood, did not hold a snail in his palm, singing: “Show me the horns, I will give you grains and crumbs for this ...”. Then it never occurred to anyone that this cute creature could cause significant damage to garden and berry crops. A large population of grape snails is capable of almost completely destroying the leaves in a vineyard or strawberry patch. Slugs (gastropods with a reduced shell) eat cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers and many other garden plants.
Where do snails and slugs come from in the beds
These mollusks are common representatives of our fauna. They live in forests, meadows, orchards and orchards. AT favorable conditions, with sufficient moisture and suitable plant species to feed on, snail and slug populations increase greatly. Mollusks are active during the warm season - from spring to autumn cold. Some species (particularly the grape snail) may mate twice per season. With the onset of autumn cooling, snails and slugs burrow into the ground and fall into hibernation - suspended animation.
Active pests of agricultural crops include large and small grape snails and several species of slugs: Deroceras reticulatum, D. agreste, D. laeve, Parmacella iberia and Limax maximus. The last of the listed varieties settles not only in the beds, but also in the cellars and basements, where it spends the winter, eating supplies: potato tubers, root crops of carrots and beets.
What are dangerous snails and slugs
These mollusks pose the greatest danger to agricultural crops. They damage not only young shoots and leaves of plants, but also fruits. So, slugs gnaw on potato tubers, strawberries, cucumbers. The favorite food of land snails and slugs is cabbage and lettuce leaves. In conditions high humidity(during such periods snails and slugs are especially active) they can eat plants almost to the ground. Crawling from garden to garden, mollusks spread viral and fungal diseases horticultural crops.
In the arsenal of the fight against harmful mollusks there are big choice means - chemical, mechanical and biological. When choosing a suitable method, one must proceed from the size of the site, the areas of planting crops, and the specifics of climatic conditions.
Chemicals
Most of the slug and snail treatments found on the shelves of garden stores contain metaldehyde. This substance damages the cells of the digestive tract, which leads to the death of animals. The drug is especially effective against young individuals. It is recommended to use it in dry weather. During rain, the effect of metaldehyde weakens. When using it, it should be remembered that it is toxic not only to molluscs, but also to humans and warm-blooded animals. If there are cats, dogs or small children on the site, then the use of metaldehyde should be abandoned.
Safe chemicals include preparations containing iron phosphate. Granules of this substance are scattered on the beds between the rows. Upon contact with the drug, snails and slugs die from dehydration. This substance does not accumulate in soil and plants. It decomposes into safe components - iron and phosphorus compounds. A tangible effect in the fight against slugs is given by preparations containing copper compounds - Bordeaux liquid, blue vitriol other.
Chemical preparations suitable for processing large areas engaged in monoculture. In suburban areas or small gardens it is desirable to use biological preparations or folk methods of struggle.
In nature, there are many natural enemies land snails and slugs. These are hedgehogs, toads, storks, rooks, thrushes, moles, shrews, lizards. Many of them can be easily attracted to your site. Hedgehogs should build shelters in which they can hide during the day and in winter time. A few piles of branches left after pruning trees will be an ideal hiding place for them. Feeders can be made for birds for the winter, then they will appear on the site and eat in the warm season garden pests. Toads lead a predominantly terrestrial lifestyle, but they need a body of water to reproduce. Small artificial pond, equipped on the site, will attract these useful amphibians.
Mechanical means
Protozoa mechanical method- This is a manual collection of pests. It is best to go hunting in the evening, before dusk, when slugs and snails begin to be active. Traps that use food attractants (substances that attract pests) will help to increase the efficiency of collecting mollusks.
It has been observed that slugs like the smell of beer, as well as fruit juices (in particular, apple). To prepare the trap, you will need pieces of fabric. Burlap is best. The fabric is moistened with beer or juice and laid out on the beds before dusk, and pests are collected from it in the early morning.
In damp places, you can lay out traps, shelters, where slugs will crawl for a day. These can be pieces of plywood, roofing felt, or even large dense leaves of plants (for example, burdock). Traps are set in the evening, and slugs are collected from them during the day.
The lower part of the “leg” of slugs and snails is very tender. Therefore, they are reluctant to move on a heterogeneous prickly substrate. Creating barrier strips from pine needles, crushed eggshell, brick chips, gravel will become an effective protection for the beds. Periodically, the backfill must be renewed so that passages do not form in it.
How to get rid of snails and slugs folk remedies
Arsenal folk methods the fight against harmful mollusks is very wide. Aromatic garden plants are involved here, whose smell repels snails and slugs, ash, tobacco dust and even food waste.
- Helps fight pests proper organization beds. Cabbage, lettuce and other plants attractive to snails and slugs should be interspersed with aromatic herbs. These pests do not like the smell of sage, thyme, calendula, rosemary, garlic. An insurmountable barrier for slugs will be nettle stalks or horseradish leaves, spread out along the perimeter of the beds. You can also mulch the ground in the garden with chopped wormwood, tansy, mint.
- Peels from melon, zucchini or watermelon are very effective as bait traps. Their scent attracts slugs and snails. In the evening, the crusts are laid out in the aisles of the beds, and pests are collected from them in the early morning. Coffee grounds are considered to be an effective means of fighting slugs. Experienced gardeners argue that coffee not only repels pests, but also has a toxic effect on them. Coffee grounds scattered between rows will significantly reduce the number of slugs on the site.
- Infusions of burning plants with a pungent odor are considered no less effective means. Plants sprayed with an aqueous solution of mustard powder, black or hot pepper become inedible for pests. An infusion of garlic cloves has a similar effect.
- Garden crops can be pollinated with a mixture of finely ground slaked lime and tobacco dust. The smell of tobacco repels pests, and the lime component acts as a contact poison. When it comes into contact with the skin of a slug, lime causes dehydration of the outer integument, which leads to the death of the pest. A similar effect is obtained by pollinating the beds with wood ash.
- In small gardens, beer traps can be used to control slugs. Cropped plastic bottles are buried next to the beds and filled with beer. Slugs, attracted by the smell of this drink, crawl to the traps and drown in them. Gardeners are also advised to lay out sheets of cardboard on the paths between the beds. Slugs crawl under them in the morning to seek shelter from the rays of the sun, and in the afternoon they are collected and destroyed.
Preventive measures
It is much easier to prevent the appearance of slugs on the site than to deal with them later. Prevention starts with spring processing beds. It is necessary to carefully remove all organic residues that remain after the previous harvest. Mature stems and leaves of plants are ideal food for young slugs.
High-quality weeding of beds throughout the season will also be a good prevention against pest mollusks. Weed beds provide an ideal hiding place for slugs to escape from the hot afternoon sun. When watering, waterlogging of the beds and stagnant water should be avoided. To do this, you need to follow the norms of irrigation, more often loosen the earth in the aisles.
When disembarking vegetable crops on the garden should strictly maintain the distance between plants. On thickened beds are created ideal conditions for the life of slugs. Pests thrive in shady thickets, which provide them not only with food, but also with a secluded shelter during the daytime.
In areas with high level ground water it is necessary to carry out reclamation measures that contribute to the drainage of the beds. Drains can be various designs- from open ditches dug at the lowest point of the garden to closed ones drainage systems, in the arrangement of which special pipes are used.
When choosing ways to deal with gastropods, it should be remembered that they are not only pests, but also part of the local ecosystem. Therefore, you should not destroy all the slugs and snails in your area. In small country and home gardens, it is advisable to use control methods based on scaring away mollusks. Several dozen individuals of snails or slugs will not cause much harm to the crop.
Video: how to deal with slugs without chemicals
Once, in one night, snails ate 15 pepper seedlings out of 40 planted. Let's figure out together how to get rid of snails or slugs in the garden different ways. You can fight, get rid of them, you even need to! Snails, slugs are one of the most annoying pests in many gardens and orchards. They belong to the family of molluscs, similar in structure and biology. Only slugs don't have a shell like a snail does. These mollusks constantly secrete mucus as they move, which makes it easier for them to move, and then, when dry, forms a silvery trail that signals to us the presence of these pests.
Lifestyle of snails and slugs
Slug egg laying under a cabbage leaf All land mollusks are hermaphrodites, having reproductive organs of both sexes, so they can produce both sperm and eggs. Therefore, each individual has the potential to reproduce offspring. They can lay eggs up to 6 times a year. The maturation process lasts about 2 years for snails, and slugs reach maturity in about 3-6 months (depending on the species).
In areas with mild winters eg southern coastal areas, these molluscs can be active all year round. When it's cold, they hibernate close to the ground. When it's hot, dry, slugs burrow deeper, and snails seal themselves off from the outside world with a parchment membrane to protect themselves from drying out, most often attached to tree trunks, fences, or walls. During this period, they live off stored fat, and can go without food for about three months. This ability is one of the many reasons why they have been able to survive over millions of years of evolution.
In wet spring, rainy summer, autumn, slugs, snails annoy us very much, eating strawberries, cabbage leaves, and other garden crops. The strawberry leans a little to the ground, you look - in the morning half of the berry is bitten, spoiled, and the leaves of cabbage or beets sparkle with large holes, eaten by these animals with the help of a horny arched jaw - a grater. Spoil seedlings, young shoots of many vegetable crops, fruits of cucumbers, tomatoes, tubers, potato foliage. They cause substantial harm winter wheat, eating sown grains, young shoots. Small holes are left on the leaves, fruits of vegetables, and young slugs, hatched in upper layers soil, holes of various sizes are gnawed out on potato tubers.
Slug (or slug) is the common name for a number of gastropod molluscs that have undergone shell loss during evolutionary development. They develop, grow quite quickly, and can reach the adult stage in a matter of months if conditions environment favor this. Some species produce offspring twice a year - in spring and autumn. Garden plots are usually chosen by field, reticulated slugs.
Slugs are fat, fat, slippery creatures that have no limbs but have two sets of tentacles at the front of their body. They do not have shells, which is why they are called naked mollusks. The absence of a shell allows slugs to live in the soil, spend more time underground, where they also find food for themselves: potatoes, carrots, beets, and we lose part of the crop.
Slugs in storage contaminate vegetables, leaving traces of hardened mucus, earth, fecal residues, which contributes to the decay of the crop, reducing its shelf life. And crawling along different plants, snails, slugs spread various diseases.
With the onset of autumn coolness, slugs penetrate into country house, leaving behind long silvery stripes - dried mucus. Admit it: it’s unpleasant when you accidentally step with your bare foot on a wet, cold, slippery slug or suddenly hear the unpleasant crunch of an accidentally crushed snail.
The long, wet, soft, slippery body of the snail is protected by a hard shell where it hides when disturbed. Its typical shell is cone-shaped, twisted in a spiral. They, just like slugs belong to the class of invertebrates (animals that do not have a backbone), can live under any conditions - in the sea, fresh water, on land in wet conditions. Both have two pairs of tentacles on their heads with organs of smell and touch. One pair of tentacles is longer than the other, looking like horns. These "horns" are eyes that are located at the tips of a long pair of tentacles. A short pair of tentacles is used for smell. The tentacles are very important to them. They don't have ears, but their amazing sense of smell helps them find food.
After the rain These mollusks are less active during the cold or, conversely, hot, dry months. On humid days, they can be found most often under cabbage leaves, under boards, stones. There they hide during the day, and in the evening they come out for food. In wet years, they can cause significant damage. garden plants. They feed on leaves, stems, flowers, fruits that are close to the ground, such as strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers. They feed mainly at night, although they sometimes act during the day when it is cloudy or raining. During hot, dry weather, they may be temporarily inactive.
Even such beauty can be destroyed
How to get rid of snails and slugs: 10 ways to fight
You can find them during the day under pre-laid boards, pieces of linoleum, old wet rags, in damp places in the garden. In the warm winter of 2013, I came across snails under old sawn stumps, brushwood, and fallen leaves.
There are several chemical methods of dealing with it, but only birds can be poisoned. For pets, people, this chemistry is not always harmless.
I know several fairly effective ways to deal with how to get rid of these garden pests.
1 way. Put a tablespoon or two of cornmeal in the jar, and lay the jar sideways where you notice the silver marks. Snails, slugs love cornmeal, but after tasting it they die. In the morning you will see a lot of dead shellfish inside or near the trap. It remains only to get rid of them, collecting, throwing them away from the garden.
Trap with beer 2 way. Dig a few holes as deep as a plastic disposable cup. Fill two-thirds of the glass with beer, put in a hole. Snails or slugs, having smelled, will surely crawl. Check these traps daily, get rid of any pests. Top up beer as needed.
3 way. Pour into spray bottle ammonia diluted with water (proportion 1:6). Spray the plants you want to protect against these pests with this solution. This concentration of the solution will not burn your plants, but it will scare away snails or slugs. These pests do not like the smell of ammonia - you will save the plants from their invasion.
4 way. Prepare strong coffee (brew a double dose). You can prepare a repellent solution from instant coffee double concentration. Cool, strain, charge the atomizer. This solution can be sprayed not only on plants, but also on the soil around them. If you have time, then watch the snails or slugs creeping up to the treated area in the evening. They abruptly (of course, abruptly - this is boldly said, but as quickly as they can because of their slowness) turn around, crawl away.
If you decide to use the third, fourth methods to get rid of snails or slugs, then you will have to repeat these techniques after every rain or after heavy dew.
5 way. Salt destroys, dissolves shellfish. But I would not advise using salt in the beds. Sprinkle salt on the paths or paths in your yard where you see signs of pest movement. Salt corrodes the body of snails or slugs, they will not be able to crawl through the salt path without harm to themselves. Once on the salt, they seem to dissolve. After a while, you will see empty shells, and from the slugs, as they say, there will be no wet place left.
6 way. To get rid of snails or slugs, fine gravel, crushed shells, eggshells, coarse sand, dead coffee grounds are poured between the rows of beds - all this will be an “unpleasant” surface for crawling mollusks. They will not be able to crawl over such an obstacle without injuring their delicate tummy.
Chard Scarlet will scare away snails and slugs 7 way. Slugs do not like plants with red leaves. If you sow around the perimeter of your plot, for example, chard beets of the "Scarlet" variety with bright red petioles, leaves with red veins, or amaranth of this variety, which has not only bright inflorescences, but also bright crimson leaves, then most of the snails or slugs will not get to your plants, save you from their presence.
8 way. Pour around tomatoes or other plants that you want to protect from slugs or snails, pine needles. You will simultaneously protect them from pests, as well as mulch the soil, protecting it from drying out. Pine needles create an acidic environment, and mollusks do not tolerate it, so they cannot get to the plants and damage them.
9 way. If you have hedgehogs, frogs, rejoice - this is a great way to get rid of slippery pests - for them, slugs or snails are a treat!
10 way. Chemical. Grocery stores sell Thunderstorm or Meta. This is strong remedy against snails or naked slugs is a rough granules blue color. I had to resort to this remedy (I used Thunderstorm), as the number of these unpleasant mollusks in the spring exceeds the allowable number. I have already mentioned that on the first day after planting bell pepper seedlings, 15 out of 40 planted plants were eaten at the root.
Manufacturers claim that when used correctly, this tool is completely harmless to people, pets, the environment, but still I recommend resorting to its help only if the situation is critical.
Thunderstorm blue granules will protect pepper seedlings And below, see the result of the Thunderstorm.
Two days after the application of the "Thunderstorm" Snails on potatoes - what to do
Last year it was hot, so the potatoes had a hard time - there was not enough moisture. I was convinced by the numerous reviews of gardeners from the Internet about the benefits of green manure. How great it is to use them as mulch to keep the soil moist in hot, dry weather.
I specifically allocated areas for green manure. One was sown with mustard, the other with phacelia. Sowed early, as soon as the snow melted. Just at the time of hilling the potatoes, she mowed them down. She covered two rows of potatoes with slightly dried grass. It seems to have sown a lot - more than a hundred square meters were occupied by green manure. But it was enough to cover only two rows with mulch (20 holes in each row).
Decided to see where better harvest will be - with mulch or not. And then it rains, rains, rains ... Without any mulch, the earth is wet.
But the biggest problem has come to light recently. On these potato bushes, which are covered with dry grass, there are a lot of snails - small, white. Lingering until dusk, not really considering, I did not immediately realize what happened to the potatoes - I thought white flowers appeared by nightfall - there were so many of them.
During the day they were not there, and in the evening they crawled out of this dry grass, where, apparently, they were hiding from the sun, they began to dine on the leaves of my potatoes. And on the potatoes not covered with mulch, there were almost none. Here's an experiment.
But the tops on potatoes under dry grass are higher, more powerful. I looked more closely - the lower leaves of the potato became openwork! How not to lose the harvest!
The lower leaves of the potato have become openwork Maybe they won’t eat all the tops? ... Something must be done urgently. I was not ready to deal with such small fry, with so many pests.
Be sure to share how I dealt with this problem.
P.S. I share ... In 2015, the weather coped with this problem. There was a wild heat all summer, including the first half of September. There were practically no snails on potatoes in the summer, and there were practically no other plants. They hid in the ground or somewhere else.
Wet, rainy weather contributes to the active development of mollusks that are harmful to the garden. Reticulated slugs and snails began to multiply with unprecedented vigor. In many horticulture, summer residents are alarmed: “These pests do not spare any plants. All lettuce, all strawberries were destroyed last season. Thousands of snails on every bush!” I wonder how gardeners fight back these most harmful, shameless mollusks?
Safe snail control
First of all, let me remind you about environmentally friendly methods of pest control.
Can be on suburban area shelter hedgehogs. During the day, slugs hide from the sun, and at night they crawl out to robbery. Hedgehogs also rest during the day. And at dusk they go hunting. Hedgehogs do not disdain shellfish.
The toad also deserves respect as a brave exterminator of snails and slugs. Bring five toads from the meadow. Set up a shady hiding place for them. For example, a cave made of stones among Alpine slide, or put a pot of damp moss on its side, half buried in the ground. During the day, the toads will hide from the sun there, and in the evening they will stomp to work. In a German gardening encyclopedia I saw a picture of a toad smiling towards a slug crawling on a leaf. Both toads and slugs are equally active at dusk, and if during the day, you will rather see them in rainy, cloudy weather.
Especially for the fight against slugs, the industry produces molluscicides - poisonous granules. They are scattered on the beds. This substance lures and kills snails and slugs. Slugs become like transparent worms and die. But chemical substances still get into the soil and are absorbed by the roots of plants.
Summer residents are more willing to use infusions of nettle, burdock. They chop this green, pour it with warm water, leave it in a dark place for three days. Strain and spray garden plants. It is curious that snails devour the nettle itself, but nettle infusions are poorly tolerated.
Some gardeners go hunting for slugs with a salt shaker. They notice a slug or a snail on a leaf - they sprinkle a pinch of salt on them. The clam melts like lard in a frying pan.
It is quite suitable for protecting the garden and vegetable garden and wood ash. Sifted, poured into a sieve and shaken over rows of plants, powdered. There are many trace elements in the ashes that will be useful as a top dressing for vegetables, flowers and berry crops, and the alkali contained in it is contraindicated for molluscs. With mild poisoning, mollusks secrete protective mucus and, as it were, “molt”. And upon repeated contact with ash or superphosphate, they will die.
And here is how in the Soviet years the workers of the famous vegetable-growing company “Leto” treated harmful snails and crickets. Vegetable growers poured beer into bowls, and elusive crickets gathered there for a drink, got drunk and drowned. And recently, in one foreign publication, I came across such a picture: a jar was dug into the ground flush with the edges of the garden bed. Above it is a conical plastic roof. Beer is poured into a jar. It's a trap for slugs! Foreign slugs, like crickets, are also very greedy for a low-alcohol drink. Beer needs to be changed in two days - to throw drowned people into compost.
There is evidence that snails and slugs do not tolerate black coffee. Shall we try to treat them with coffee grounds? Let's make coffee stronger, pour it into the sprayer - and into battle!
Strawberry lovers have noticed that slugs and snails avoid contact with needles and sawdust. coniferous plants- pines and firs. And sprinkle the ground between the bushes with needles or sawdust. Perhaps the thorns irritate the delicate soles of pests? But maybe the reason is different. In plants conifers contains volatile resinous substances. As an experiment, I propose to try a water-turpentine emulsion. No one has done such experiments yet, but try what happens. A tablespoon of turpentine per liter of water plus 10 g of laundry soap (for sticking) will, in my opinion, be enough. Make 2-3 treatments of problem plants in the evening, with an interval of a day or two.
Among wild plants occasionally there are those that bypass snails and slugs. For example, ferns. But what if we prepare infusions from their leaves or rhizomes and process the garden? Write to us what happens.
Fighting snails - advice from a professional
Gardeners need to know the biology of pests, said E. V. Volodina, candidate of biological sciences, to me. - Let's remember once again that mollusks harm at night, and hide in the daytime shady places, ; under lumps of soil. I lay out the fragments of slate, boards, burdock leaves “inside out” up, and in a day I inspect, collect in a bucket and: destroy. And so that the slugs do not penetrate the garden, I sprinkle the ground along the edge with ground superphosphate. The width of the strip is 10 centimeters.
They crawl across the border - they are finished. Superphosphate is a valuable fertilizer and protection for plants. It is not necessary to pour a lot, just to powder the earth. After rain, the dressing must be resumed.
Hold on, snails!
A year ago, we exchanged our garden for a dacha in another area. We already thought that we had been running the household for so many years, we were trained in everything, but no! We encountered a new pest that we had not thought about before. In the new place there were many garden snails. They ate the strawberry crop in one day, and the flowers were not allowed to bloom - they ate the petals. I began to look for how to get them out. I collected a collection of tips, checked: something more, something less, but they all work! I share with you now.
Mow the lawn more often. Snails love dampness and live in tall grass.
Put things in order. Boards, stones, pieces of plastic and metal - the same source of dampness and coolness, ideal for a snail.
Fill the passages between the beds with sawdust or fine gravel. It is difficult for a snail to crawl on dry loose soil.
Make a trap: take a plastic bottle cut to a height of 15 cm and dig it into the ground along the very edges. Fill to the top with beer, kvass or syrup. From above, cover loosely with a bag or something else, which, like an umbrella, will protect the trap from rain. Ready! Snails will crawl on the smell of beer and drown.
Spray the plants with garlic infusion (grate 100 g of garlic, pour 1 n boiling water, leave for a day. This is a concentrate: it must be diluted with water 1:20 before spraying).
Collect snails with your hands and put them in a jar of gasoline or salt. Unpleasant and inhumane, but it works.
B.C. KULICHKINA, Vyborg
And on our plot of 12 acres, which is located on the Karelian Isthmus, where there is plenty of moisture, snails and slugs were just a disaster until this year. And we collected them, especially after the rains, in in large numbers on the beds, bushes, fence. And so I read that guinea fowl cope well with this misfortune. It is necessary to accustom them by giving snails and slugs to the diet, but they do not rake the ground like chickens, and do not destroy other pests - those in the ground, in leaves, under bushes and trees.
It was a task for me. While the earth was freed from hibernation and was preparing to once again release pests, I started building little house for the bird, which, in my opinion, was supposed to help cope with snails and slugs. And three charming chickens settled in our so-called chicken coop with a small aviary.
Of course, I did not expect much help from four-month-old Ukrainians. When the snails climbed and the slugs appeared, after the next collection, he treated the feathered household several times, which at first with caution, and after the third treat, accepted them like a delicacy. Despite my wife's certain fears that they would peck at her seedlings and berries instead of slugs and snails, I released them to freedom within the fenced area. The fears turned out to be unfounded.
But the snails and slugs, from which the eyes were rippling, miraculously began to disappear, and with them the caterpillars and ants.
But the strawberries, which were inaccessible to our "nurses", as they were fenced, were invaded by ants, which began to eat up ripe berries. My wife had to make an application to visit these beds.
To our surprise, the massacre of the ants took place in the most amazing way. At the same time, the chickens were not interested in berries.
To some, this business will seem troublesome - to keep even three chickens, they also require care and attention. Despite their omnivorous nature, they need food and mineral supplements, but it's worth it. After all, they have also become laying hens and daily, if not three, then two fresh eggs are brought. A replenishment of the compost pit chicken manure is also a plus.
I do not deny other methods of dealing with snails and slugs, but for me this one is the most effective, environmentally friendly and triple useful.
Vasily Vasilyevich Logvinenko
Although snails are not quick ...
About ten years ago, we, living in the north, did not know, and never heard of garden snails. When they appeared, it was rumored that they brought this mollusk with a container from the Baltic. Be that as it may, but in Karelia snails bred almost instantly and in large numbers. Apparently, this is facilitated by a cool and humid summer. And now getting garden products that are clean, not soiled by snails and not eaten by them has become a problem.
Eats up everything
Snails are found everywhere - in gardens, in fields and forests. Already in distant forest clearings, where we usually collect medicinal plants, these mollusks have bred, probably, they “arrive” there in cars of berry pickers and mushroom pickers, and in timber trucks.
The snail is so omnivorous that Colorado beetle Compared to her, it seems like a harmless creature. Although he harms, but selectively, chemicals can be used against him. And this seemingly slow creature eats everything, even nettles, horseradish and all other bitter and burning plants. It eats berries and fruits right on the trees, and apples, for example, can be spoiled at a height of 4-5 m! What to do, how to deal with this creature?
I manage pests in several ways.
Manual collection
First of all, you need to get rid of weeds, especially gout under the bushes. We try to keep the area clean. Nothing grows even under fruit trees, because snails in the grass are a real paradise. They love wet weather, because it is difficult for them to crawl "on dry land" along the stems and leaves. But after the rains and growing, they crawl out in dozens, climbing the bushes.
This is the best time to "hunt" these pests. I take a household bucket, dissolve in 1 liter of water 2 tbsp. l. table salt, put on gloves and, one by one, drop the snails into the brine. They immediately hide in their shells, and then salted. After half an hour, not a single snail moves.
Scheduled fee
AT hot weather snails like to hide under objects lying on the ground - leaves, heaps of herbs, building materials. I help them with this. I lay out pieces of wave slate, boards 30-40 cm long, and other wooden parts around the entire perimeter of the site every meter.
In the hot afternoon, I take the same bucket of brine, a small short broom and collect clams on a “planned” basis. I pick up the plank to which the snails are glued, and with one movement of the broom I dump them into the bucket. In one round, over a hundred pests turn out to be in the bucket! So I do 2-3 times a week 8.
But there is one trick: it is impossible for the board to lie tightly on the ground - the snails simply will not crawl under it. Therefore, I do this: to one end I nail a round timber with a diameter of 2-3 cm or a bar of the same section across.
Framing beds
We have a garden bed in the shade of the barn with horseradish, which is indispensable when canning vegetables. It is located just in such a place where for breeding snails - the most Better conditions. Until the 2014 season, we were unable to keep horseradish leaves intact. Snails literally attacked in hordes!
But I managed to solve this problem. I framed this garden bed out of used galvanized sheet metal. From it I cut strips 24-25 cm wide. One edge, stepping back from the edge 4-5 cm, bent at an angle of 45-50 degrees. He also took dry spruce stakes, sharply hewn upper part, soaked with engine oil and stuck them in, taking into account the length of the steel strips along the perimeter of the beds (Fig. 1, position 1). Then I cut the sides of the beds vertically and installed metal strips behind the stakes, as shown in the picture. Each sheet overlaps the next in length.
In coming up with this design, I used my observations of snails. When a mollusk crawls onto a vertical surface (and this happens very often), and there is an obstacle in the form of a bar on it, then it cannot move further. It also fails to turn around and slide down. So the snail is trapped where it dries up.
I thought that the snails would crawl onto the iron sheets, but they would not be able to climb further, since the sharp angle of the edge
iron will not allow them to climb up. And so it happened. About a week later I looked, are there snails under the edge of the iron? There were quite a few of them.
So the bed with horseradish was reliably protected. Leaves no longer gnawed. Therefore, I decided that next season I would also equip strawberry beds.
For those who do not have enough iron sheet, you can make a frame according to another option, shown in fig. 2. Framing is done with boards (if they are narrow, you can knock two pieces together) or slate. They are also supported by stakes driven in from the outside. So that the snails do not crawl over the boards, we nail them on their edges or fasten them with screws before installing them with strips of iron or aluminum 4-5 cm wide, just as in the first case, at an angle.
Garden on the horns or watching snails
The nightmare of any summer resident is the death of his favorite plantings. And, unfortunately, this "horror" can now often be seen with your own eyes in own garden. In the role of the main and ruthless villain - an ordinary snail. However, considering how much harm it brings and how much effort it takes to fight it, it is just right to call it extraordinary.
Where the babies come from?
“Snail, snail, stick out your horns ...” - so my girlfriends and I sang in our early childhood when we found this creature. Admired them, touched, rejoiced. And then I didn’t think at all that this “honey” and “cutie” was not at all as harmless as we thought. How much different advice how to deal with snails and their slug pals I have been reading in the last two years! Many of them I tried to apply and, regardless of their effectiveness, I concluded that the fight is a fight, but prevention is more important. What should be understood by it? And the fact that you should not allow snails to breed.
Therefore, from early spring to the end of summer, I recently took iron rule do not be lazy to make a round of your garden in the mornings and evenings (and in rainy weather and during the day) and harvest these slimy creatures. Dirty, of course, this business (as friends laugh - not for the faint of heart), but where to go? If I'm not them, then they're me. Or rather, my landings (which, in general, are just a part of myself).
I don’t just walk past the flower beds where plants that are especially tasty for snails grow, but I also set traps. After all, as you know, they like to hide in dark places during the day. Therefore, I lay out small strips of slate along the beds, and early in the morning I turn over and shake off the "lodgers" stuck to their wrong side in a bucket.
Last summer was warm and humid, it rained almost every day. And it was then that I first realized how many pests live on my site. I also understood that this is not the limit of their ability to be fruitful.
So we, summer residents, often think about it? And it would be necessary, because the struggle with the consequences, and not with the cause, is running in a circle.
If so, let's think. Nature begins to wake up in spring, and snails crawl out of their shelters to feast on tender young leaves. And while the vegetables in the garden have not grown, they gobble up primroses for a sweet soul. I noticed that they have a favorite flower - colchicum. You can often see that its young foliage is all eaten away. This flower is also so convenient for snails and slugs that you can easily hide from the sun in its rosettes. And in autumn, pests are very fond of clustering around rudbecks, which are popularly called golden balls. Therefore, when examining my possessions, I first of all pay attention to these plants.
It's never too late
Who said snails crawl slowly? Of course, everything is known in comparison, but I can say with all responsibility that in a short summer night they easily cover a distance of at least 3 m. This is probably not the limit of their capabilities, I did not measure it on purpose. But judging by the "schedule" of the destruction of my landings, I'm not too mistaken.
“So, excuse me,” an attentive reader may notice, “what then to do with the collected snails and slugs?” O! This should be discussed separately. I don't go on my daily rounds with empty handed- I carry a bucket of water, in which I dissolve a little washing powder or dishwashing liquid. What for? And then, that the chemicals contained in them act detrimentally on pests, almost instantly corroding their mucous membrane. If you just throw them into clean water, they will only say thank you for this: they will swim a little, and they will crawl out onto land without any problems.
But! If you make it so that bathing can be delayed, this can also become a means of combating snails, and in literally words, and even environmentally friendly. After all, these horned creatures are not inherently waterfowl creatures; too long a stay in the water is also fatal for them. This is how I sometimes do it: if during a round I don’t have a container with a solution of chemistry with me (or I’m too lazy to carry it with me), then I throw the snails collected in the palm of my hand right into the middle of my decorative reservoir. And they find themselves in a hopeless situation. They cannot swim (there are no fins or tails), which means they will not reach the shore. And if they come out on the leaves aquatic plants growing there, anyway, they do not have long to live. Firstly, these plants are inedible for them, and secondly, frogs are also on the alert, and besides, they always want to eat. Often my five-year-old granddaughter helps me fight snails. And it's funny for me to watch how she rejoices, sending snails on a "long voyage". She has such a game.
In the magazine, I have repeatedly seen advice that from snails it is necessary to lay spruce branches on the beds. I don’t know, maybe there are such “vigorous” spruce trees somewhere, but my pests live very calmly right on them and feed on young needles, not at all embarrassed that they can prick themselves. To my horror, I noticed that they had made it a habit to hide in my favorites as well. globular thujas, as well as thickets of undersized autumn asters. I don't know how to get them out of there.
But to spoil them good life in compost heaps (which for them is akin to a restaurant: warm and full of food) I have already learned. It's simple: on top of the organics I lay out all the same strips of slate, as well as pieces of plastic wrap. You just have to remember to look through these hunting places every day and destroy the hidden pests. So sometimes we ourselves create comfortable conditions for them and produce them without thinking. Therefore, it is necessary to start the fight with the beginning holiday season and continue until closing. And it's never too late to do so.
Fighting snails: Why purchased seedlings wither quickly ...
Did you know that harmless-looking, inconspicuous snails have 14,175 teeth, with which they grind everything edible that comes their way in the garden and vegetable garden?
It is quite difficult to deal with the invasion of snails, it is easiest to prevent it by periodically carrying out prophylaxis against these voracious mollusks.
The fight against snails in the garden, in the garden and in the country is carried out various methods: environmental, mechanical, chemical and folk remedies.
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Fighting snails in the garden
Although snails cause irreparable harm to the garden, they still belong to the category of garden orderlies. Processing damaged by any pests, or dead residues various plants they perform an important function in the garden - they clean and heal the garden ecosystem. Therefore, the fight against snails in the garden should be carried out with soft measures, and not with their total extermination.
First of all, the access of mollusks to plants should be limited, and the chemical method of extermination of snails should be used only as an extreme measure, and only pointwise, in those places where too many snails have bred.
Competent gardening is the first, preventive measure against the invasion of snails. It consists of various techniques, which include improving the structure and quality of the soil, carried out in a timely manner. garden work, properly selected garden plants, periodic maintenance of garden hygiene, rotation of crops, well-chosen neighborhood of plants and much more.
All these measures will strengthen the plants, and, as you know, strong, healthy plants resist diseases and pests better than weakened and sick ones.
Birds, frogs, lizards, fireflies, toads, hedgehogs, some beetles also help to fight snails on garden plot. So enlist these beneficial fauna to provide natural pest control.
Attracting them is quite simple: when you see a hedgehog in the garden, treat him with milk, then he will come again for a treat, and even bring his family. Know that one hedgehog eats as much snails as it weighs.
To bait frogs and toads, dig a small pond in your area. Catch these animals in the city pond or park, and settle them on your site, creating comfortable conditions for them.
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Fighting snails in the garden
Eating leaves, gnawing root crops and eating snail flowers, they cause irreparable harm to the garden - they limit photosynthesis, reduce the appearance of ovaries, and shorten the shelf life of a damaged crop.
A damaged plant is more likely to get sick with fungal diseases, moreover, fruits rot from the mucus of pests. There are many ways to deal with snails in the garden, but it is best to use mechanical and ecological methods of struggle.
Chemical method used only as a last resort, since it is dangerous not only for pests, but also for plants. mechanical method voracious pest control is their manual collection, which is best done with tweezers.
We catch snails
You can catch shellfish using traps that are placed in cool, damp places. To do this, rags, old bags moistened with fruit juice or beer, cabbage or burdock leaves, and boards are laid between the beds on the paths.
On a hot day, the snails will climb under the laid out shelters, you just have to quickly collect them in the evening. You can also fight snails in the country with the help of shallow containers filled with water and covered with rags. Capacities need to be dug flush with the ground. Collected snails are destroyed in saline or soapy water.
Grape snails
Most often, grape snails live in the garden and in the garden. They have a soft body, so the fight against grape snails can be done with the help of eggshells, broken shells, fine gravel.
By scattering ribbons between the beds, crushed shells and egg shells, you will create unpleasant surface for the movement of snails, because the sharp edges of the scattered material will cut their delicate body.
You can also pour 2-3 strips of superphosphate or lime between the beds - they quickly absorb moisture and mucus from the surface of the snail's body, thereby blocking its movement. But this method of struggle has a drawback - it is inconvenient to water the plants, and it is washed off first by rain.
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Means for the fight against snails
As mentioned above, the fight against snails in a summer cottage, if possible, should be carried out by mechanical or folk means. You can place plastic gutters filled with water in the garden or in the garden.
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Ecological ways
In the garden, gutters with water are attached to prefabricated beds. Water for snails is an insurmountable obstacle, so once they get into the water, they can no longer get out of it.
ecological way pest control is to attract representatives of useful fauna: starlings, jays, thrushes, hedgehogs, frogs, etc.
Snails do not eat all plants spices they don't tolerate. Therefore, plant garlic, parsley, rosemary, sage, laurel around the perimeter of the beds - they will scare voracious pests from plants.
As a means of dealing with snails, you can use infusions of coffee, mustard and hot pepper. 2 tsp coffee powder, mustard or hot pepper diluted in 200 gr. boiling water, cool and spray the plants.
They do not like snails, and fresh nettles laid on the beds. You can also buy plastic wide rims with bent edges.
They are fixed around the plants in the ground and that's it - the snails will not be able to get close to the greenery. You can also distract snails from plants with old leaves and tops of plants.
This pest control method is especially effective in greenhouses and greenhouses. Carried away by devouring this waste, snails “forget” about growing plants, so they can be safely collected along with drying waste and destroyed. Traps should be replaced periodically with fresh leaves.
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Modern and chemical means
Methods for dealing with snails are constantly being improved. There are, for example, rims and self-adhesive tapes made of copper, covering material that has copper plating They can be used to control pests electrically. From contact with copper, the mollusks receive a mild electrical shock, which is why they do not want to cross this barrier.
It is quite easy to use this method in action: the purchased microorganisms are diluted with water and watered from the planting watering can, where the snails are housed. All snails die in this place within a week. One watering is enough for a month and a half of action.
You can also fight snails in the garden and in the garden with chemical means, if nothing helps. Chemical means for pest control are different, but more effective are metaldehyde granules "Meta" and "Thunderstorm".
The beautiful blue granules of these drugs attract and instantly kill shellfish, but you should know that it is also dangerous for pets and people. Therefore, when using these drugs, precautions should be taken.
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Fighting snails with folk remedies
The fight against snails with folk remedies is carried out in various proven ways.
Salt treatment
The most common way to deal with these pests is to sprinkle the ground with salt or spray the plants with a saline solution, but this can dry out or discolor the leaves of some plants.
Some gardeners and gardeners water the plants from a watering can with a solution of citric acid or vinegar. The solution should be made weak - 25 gr. citric acid or 25 ml of 9% vinegar per 10 liters of water. Plants are sprayed with these solutions once a week, preferably in the evening.
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In the garden
Effectively deal with snails in the garden allow such folk measures as placed low cans with lemonade, fermented compote or beer.
Banks are dug flush with the ground in places where snails accumulate. The molluscs, attracted by the smell, stuff themselves into jars overnight, and cannot get out again. good effect gives ash scattered around plants or dry coarse sand.
In greenhouses and greenhouses, folk remedies recommend spraying the soil with an infusion of garlic: 50 gr. garlic is ground in a meat grinder and insisted in 10 liters of water. Then they mix, filter and water the passage between the beds and the beds themselves.
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On a strawberry
You can fight snails on strawberries like this: sprinkle spruce needles on the ground or put a thick layer of pine and spruce paws. Spruce and pine needles serve as a good protection against snails, and in addition protect the soil from drying out and fertilize it.
The collected snails are placed in a solution of salt, washing powder or kerosene. Do not place live snails in compost heaps - in favorable conditions, they will begin to lay eggs.
Dig up the ground in the spring, thereby destroying the eggs laid by the snails. 1-2 times a month it is necessary to loosen the soil, weed out and remove them from the garden.
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On the territory of the garden and vegetable garden, pests can be not only spiders, ticks, moths, which happily gnaw through the grown plants. Gastropods slowly but surely crawl onto stems, twigs, gnaw through leaves and fruits, for which gardeners work on their plots. Nature, of course, thought out some stages of the whole system food chain. Slugs and snails are eaten by birds, but unfortunately, birds cannot cope with everyone. Therefore, man has come up with many methods aimed against snails.
How to deal with snails with salt
Salt is one of the most dangerous enemies.
- Option 1 - to sprinkle salt paths between the beds, but if floors made of wood or stones are laid in advance. The substance of snails kills immediately, but also harms the soil and plants.
- Option 2 - use salt only in places where snails accumulate, but not in the beds. For example, make a bait for the night, and fill it with salt in the morning.
How to deal with snails - picking snails by hand
- It is better to collect after the rains. Children love to play in the garden, for sure it will not be difficult for them to play the game “Collect the snails”. Announce the rules: whoever collected the most is the declared winner. The trophy pile is thrown into a bucket of strong saline or simply poured with boiling water, like Colorado beetles.
- You should carefully examine the ground, as caviar is located on the surface in the ground. It is crushed with a boot or buried deep in the ground. The tub looks like small white or translucent balls.
How to deal with snails animals
Some pets (dogs, cats, chickens, ducks) use shells for play and food. It is worth setting an example for them so that the cottage is cleared faster. True, there is a risk of plucking or trampling seedlings. 
How to deal with snails with improvised means
- Unpleasant to the touch surfaces will be excellent obstacles to small pests. For example, if you sprinkle strips of sand about 15 cm wide between the rows, then the snails will not be able to crawl over them. gravel paths repel pests. The sharper the edges, the smaller the granules, the worse for them. A number of materials can be continued: detailed shell walnuts, crushed shells brought from the sea, beach.
- Protection on the bushes is put with spruce, pine powder, or simply twigs, which themselves crumble when dried and will benefit as a fertilizer for the soil.
- Nettles are harvested in season (always with gloves) and dried in the sun. Next, the plant is covered with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.
- Heat water to 60 C and pour cabbage over. Only cabbage is able to withstand such temperatures without harm to growth.
How to deal with snails with food
- Coffee is used carefully, acts on everything around. They take thick from brewed coffee, sprinkle the soil near the stems. Update every 2 days. The option is expensive, and it is difficult and dangerous to drink so much drink.
- Coffee solution: water mixed with coffee granules or special tablets, low concentration 0.1, spray the area.
- Mustard - 50 g of dry mustard to insist in warm water 300 ml. Spray the plants throughout the garden, the product repels, does not allow you to get closer due to its pungent smell.
How to deal with snails - tricky traps
- Alcohol baits - dig a plastic glass or a plastic bottle cut in half into the ground, pour beer into it up to half the volume of the container. Change fluid every 2-3 days.
- Sweet traps - just dig a container and fill it with boiled honey, yeast and water.
- Corn starch - pour into a jar located horizontally on the ground. The slugs will crawl in, eat it, and swell with the substance.
How to deal with snails - fertilizers
Superphosphate, potassium salt - top dressing for plants, but kills snails. Scatter on the soil in two passes, maintaining an interval of 30 minutes. 
The above is not entirely humane ways catching snails. There are more interesting and kinder: lure them with citrus peels fruit plants soaked in water, or already gnawed plucked leaves of cabbage. Life hack for gardeners: catching snails is more effective at night or in the evening. It is then that they go hunting and at this time they need supervision! The task is easier to carry out by taking a bucket and a bright headlamp with you. If the thugs are not visible from above, then they will definitely be found under the leaves. On the ground there are traces of mucus - this helps in the capture.