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 among the most annoying pests in many gardens and vegetable gardens. They belong to the mollusc family, are similar in structure and biology. Only slugs don't have the shell that a snail has. These mollusks, when moving, constantly secrete mucus, which makes it easier for them to move, and then, when they dry out, forms a silvery trail that signals the presence of these pests.
Snails and slugs lifestyle
Clutch of slug eggs under cabbage leaf All land molluscs are hermaphrodites, have 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 ripening process in snails lasts about 2 years, and slugs reach maturity in about 3-6 months (depending on the species).
In areas with mild winterse.g. southern coastal areas, these molluscs can be active whole year. When it is cold, they hibernate shallow from the ground. When hot, drought, slugs burrow deeper, and snails are fenced off from the outside world with a parchment membrane to protect themselves from drying out, most often they attach to tree trunks, fences, or walls. During this period, they live off stored fat, and can remain without food for about three months. This ability is one of the many reasons why they were able to survive through millions of years of evolution.
In wet spring, rainy summer, autumn slugs, snails annoy us very much by eating strawberries, cabbage leaves, and others garden crops... The strawberry bends slightly 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 arcuate jaw - a grater. They spoil seedlings, young shoots of many vegetable crops, fruits of cucumbers, tomatoes, tubers, potato foliage. They cause significant harm to winter wheat by eating sown grains and young shoots. Small holes are left on the leaves, fruits of vegetables, and young slugs, having hatched in the upper layers of the soil, gnaw holes of various sizes on the potato tubers.
Slug (or slug) is the common name for a number of gastropods that have undergone shell loss in the course of evolutionary development. They develop, grow quite quickly, and can reach adulthood in a matter of months if conditions environment favor this. Some varieties breed twice a year - in spring and autumn. Garden plots are usually favored by field, mesh slugs.
Slugs are fat, greasy, slippery creatures that have no limbs but have two sets of tentacles in the front of their bodies. They have no shell, so they are called naked molluscs. 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 harvest.
Slugs in storages contaminate vegetables, leaving traces of frozen mucus, earth, and fecal residues, which contributes to crop rotting, shortening its shelf life. And crawling on different plants, snails, slugs spread various diseases.
With the onset of autumn coolness, slugs penetrate country houseleaving behind long silvery streaks - dried mucus. Admit it: it’s unpleasant when you accidentally step on a wet, cold, slippery slug with your bare foot, or you suddenly hear an unpleasant crunch of an unintentionally crushed snail.
The long, moist, soft, slippery body of the snail is protected by a hard shell, where it hides when it is disturbed. Its typical shell has a conical shape and is twisted in a spiral. They, 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 humid conditions. Both have two pairs of tentacles on their heads with the organs of smell and touch. One pair of tentacles is longer than the other and looks like horns. These "horns" are eyes that are located at the tips of a long pair of tentacles. A short pair of tentacles are used for smelling. The tentacles are very important to them. They have no ears, but their amazing sense of smell helps them find food.
After the rain These molluscs are less active during cold or, conversely, hot, dry months. On wet days, they can be found most often under cabbage leaves, under boards, stones. There they hide during the day, and in the evening they go out to get food. In wet years, they can do significant harm. 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 sometimes they act during the day, when it is cloudy or it is 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 sawed-off hemp, brushwood, and fallen leaves.
There are several chemical methods to control it, but only birds can be poisoned. For pets, people, this chemistry is not always harmless.
I know a few enough effective ways fight how to get rid of these garden pests.
1 way. Place a tablespoon or two of cornmeal in the jar and place the jar on its side where you notice the silvery marks. Snails, slugs love corn mealbut they die after trying it. In the morning you will see many dead shellfish inside or near the trap. It remains only to get rid of them by collecting them, throwing them away from the garden.
Beer trap Method 2. Dig a few holes deep, such as a plastic disposable cup. Fill two-thirds of the glass with beer, put in the hole. Snails or slugs, smelling, will certainly crawl. Check these traps daily, get rid of the pests that have come across. Add beer as needed.
Method 3. Pour into a container with a spray ammoniadiluted with water (proportion 1: 6). Spray the plants that you want to protect from 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.
Method 4. Make a strong coffee (brew a double dose). You can make a repellant solution from double strength instant coffee. Cool, strain, charge the spray. This solution can be used to spray not only plants, but also the soil around them. If you have time, watch snails or slugs crawling towards the treated area in the evening. They abruptly (of course, sharply - this is boldly said, but as quickly as they can because of their slowness) will 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.
Method 5. Salt destroys, dissolves shellfish. But I would not advise using salt in the beds. Sprinkle salt on paths or paths in your area where pests have been seen. Salt eats away at the body of snails or slugs, they cannot crawl through the salt path without harm to themselves. Once on salt, they seem to dissolve. After a while, you will see empty shells, and, as they say, there will be no wet place from slugs.
Method 6. To get rid of snails or slugs, fine gravel, crushed shells are poured between the rows of beds, eggshell, coarse sand, sleeping coffee grounds - all this will be an "unpleasant" surface for crawling mollusks. They will not be able to crawl over such an obstacle without hurting their tender tummy.
Chard Scarlet will scare away snails and slugs Method 7. Slugs don't like plants with red leaves. If you sow around the perimeter of your plot, for example, beetroot Swiss chard variety "Scarlet" with bright red petioles, leaves with red veins or amaranth of this variety, which has not only bright inflorescencesbut also bright crimson leaves, then most of snails or slugs will not get to your plants, relieve you of their presence.
Method 8. Scatter around, tomatoes or other plants that you want to protect from slugs or snails, pine needles. You will simultaneously protect them from pests, and also mulch the soil, preventing it from drying out. Pine needles create an acidic environment, and mollusks do not tolerate it, so they cannot get to plants and damage them.
Method 9. 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. Gardening shops sell Thunderstorm or Meta. This powerful remedy against snails or naked slugs is a rough granule blue... I had to resort to this remedy (I used Thunderstorm), since the number of these unpleasant mollusks in the spring exceeds the allowable amount. 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 assure that when correct use This remedy is completely harmless to people, pets, the environment, but I still recommend using it only if the situation is critical.
Blue Storm Pellets Protect Pepper Seedlings And below you can see the result of Storm action.
Two days after using 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 wonderful it is to use them as a mulch that will keep the soil moist in hot dry weather.
I specially allocated areas for green manure. One was seeded with mustard, the other with phacelia. Sowed early as soon as the snow melted. Just at the time of hilling the potatoes, I mowed them. 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).
I 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 came to light recently. On these potato bushes, which are covered with dry grass, there are a lot of small, white snails. Lingering until dusk, without really considering, I did not immediately realize what had happened to the potatoes - I thought the white flowers had 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 turned out.
But the tops on potatoes under dry grass are higher, more powerful. I looked more closely - the lower leaves of the potatoes became delicate! How not to lose the harvest!
The lower leaves of the potato have become openwork Maybe they won't eat all the tops? ... We need to do something urgently. I was not ready to fight such small fry, with so many pests.
I will definitely 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 summer, there were practically no other plants. They were hiding in the ground or somewhere else.
There are three ways to deal with snails and slugs.An ecological way of fighting. Its essence is to attract natural enemies of slugs and snails. Nature is arranged so that for toads and hedgehogs they are very tasty food. Hedgehogs are easy to lure with almost any dog \u200b\u200bfood (making sure that neighbors or stray dogs do not come to treat them instead), and to attract toads it will be useful to make water reservoirs relatively small size... Well, in order for hedgehogs and toads to become permanent residents of the site and to be its defenders for a long time, they should organize good shelters for them for a comfortable winter.
Birds also do well with slugs and snails. Jays, wagtails, and starlings with blackbirds are always very eager to eat them. Attracting birds will not be difficult - just hang feeders with treats and birdhouses. Having got used to eating on the site in the winter cold, they will continue to do this in the summer. It is noteworthy that sometimes in a difficult fight against harmful mollusks all possible help even ladybugs do it.
Also, snails with slugs absolutely do not tolerate the smell of various spicy herbs. Garlic, sage, rosemary, laurel and parsley planted around the perimeter of the garden will help scare off these pests from the vegetation. Spraying with infusions of mustard, coffee and hot pepper (2 teaspoons are taken for 200 g of boiling water) also helps. And also harmful mollusks hate freshly cut and spread nettles on the beds.
You can also use in the fight the fact that the pests have a soft little body. To do this, create an uncomfortable and unpleasant surface for moving slugs and snails - fine gravel, well-crushed eggshells or absolutely any dry porous material are scattered around the plants.
Mollusks also do not welcome superphosphate and lime if sprinkled at a distance of 15 cm from each other in 2 - 3 strips. These drugs will help block the movement of snails and slugs, because they quickly absorb moisture with mucus from the surface of their bodies. Have this method and the disadvantage: it becomes not very convenient to water the plants, and the remedies themselves stop working after the rain.
Water also serves as an insurmountable obstacle for soft-bodied pests, so it would be a good option to make an artificial barrier for them: for this, plastic grooves filled with water are attached to prefabricated beds. Options further development There are two situations: slugs with snails either do not dare to dare to overcome such an obstacle, or they will not be able to get out of the water after they get into it.
Prevention
It is much easier to prevent the appearance of slugs and snails than to deal with it later. The main goal of preventive work is to create an unfavorable habitat for these harmful individuals. To begin with, they should be deprived of their usual daytime shelter: remove from the paths, as well as from the beds, all unnecessary boards, pebbles, as well as weeded weeds (in the event that they are not planned to be used as bait). Also, on the paths and on the boundaries, you should regularly mow the grass, and dry areas that are too damp. When planting plants, the planting density is strictly observed, and the lower leaves of lettuce and cabbage are promptly cut off. And in order to deprive the mollusks of such an attractive opportunity to hide in cracks in the ground, they carefully loosen the soil. It should be especially noted that all of the above activities are implemented throughout the growing season. After the harvest is harvested, plant residues are carefully removed to leave slugs and snails without food and shelter for the winter.Did you know that snails have 14,175 teeth, with which they quickly grind everything edible in the ground that starts to come across them?
Therefore, it is not at all surprising that a large number of gardeners, as well as gardeners, are in search of answers to the question of how to properly deal with snails on their adjoining territory.
It is necessary to know that it is very difficult to fight with an invasion of snails, the easiest way to prevent it is, from time to time, carrying out prevention against these creatures.
In addition, cute pets of small children - snails are carriers of tapeworms, as well as roundworms.
What can snails destroy?
Snails often crawl out to "hunt" at night or in bad cloudy weather after rain. During the day, they like to disguise themselves in secluded places where it is very humid and too dark. You can find out that you have snails by the holes irregular shapethat molluscs gnaw in juicy leaves different plants.
They do not like the stem and large veins at all. Still correct sign the appearance of snails in your local area - heaps of feces, as well as traces of mucus. These signs may indicate that it is time to seriously fight the snails in.
Snail fighting is done different methods: mechanical, environmental, chemical, as well as folk methods.
Ways to deal with snails in the garden
Although these molluscs do a lot of damage to the garden, they should still be classified as garden orderlies. Recycling all injured plants with some kind of pests, or dead parts of different plants, they perform a great function in the garden - they completely cleanse the ecosystem of the garden. Therefore, the battle with snails in the garden must be performed soft measures, not all of them by extermination.
First you need to restrict the access of snails to, and chemical method extermination of snails should be used only as a last resort, and only pointwise, in those places where there are a lot of snails.
Proper gardening is the first preventive measure against a true shellfish invasion. It consists of various techniques, which include the modernization of the structure and quality of the soil, during the garden work carried out, correctly selected garden plants, temporary maintenance of hygiene in the garden, rotation of different crops, correctly selected neighborhood of plants and much more.
All these measures will strengthen the plants, and, as everyone knows, strong, normal plants are best able to resist diseases and the invasion of various pests than damaged ones.
Birds, lizards, frogs, fireflies, hedgehogs, toads, and various beetles also help to fight snails in the garden. Therefore, it is necessary to involve these representatives of useful fauna so that they carry out natural control over all pests.
It is very easy to attract them: when you see a hedgehog in the garden, you should treat him with milk, then he will come again for a treat, and even his family can bring his own. It is worth knowing that one hedgehog can eat snails as much as its weight.
To lure frogs and toads, you need to dig a small one in your area. Catch these animals in a city pond or park, and then settle them on your site, creating them better conditions.
What methods can be used to deal with snails in the garden
By eating a lot of foliage, gnawing many roots of fruits, as well as eating flowers, mollusks cause great damage to the garden - they completely limit photosynthesis, also reduce the occurrence of ovaries, and completely reduce the storage time of an already damaged crop.
The injured plant most of all attempts to get sick with various fungal diseases, in addition, the fruits completely rot from the mucus of the pests. You can fight all the shellfish in the garden different ways, but it is desirable to use mechanical, as well ecological ways fight.
The chemical method is used only at least, since it is dangerous for both pests and the plants themselves. The mechanical version of the fight against snails consists in their manual collection, which is desirable using tweezers.
We catch snails. Snails can be easily trapped using traps that are placed in humid places. To do this, between the beds themselves on the paths, old bags, rags, cabbage leaves or burdock are laid, as well as boards.
On a hot day, snail mollusks will crawl under their shelters, you just have to quickly take and collect them in the evening. You can also fight shellfish in the country by means of shallow tanks filled with water and covered with rags. The containers must be dug flush with the ground. The collected molluscs are completely eliminated in saline and soap solution.
Fighting grape snails
Not all plants can be devoured by molluscs, for example, spices they can't stand it at all. Therefore, it is worth planting parsley, garlic, rosemary, sage, and also laurel around the perimeter of the beds - they will constantly scare away snails from various plants.
As a means of dealing with gluttonous pests you can use infusions of mustard, coffee, and pepper.
They do not tolerate snails, and fresh nettles, which are laid on the beds. You can also purchase plastic wide headbands with specially folded edges.
They are attached around the plantings in the ground and that's it - the mollusks will not be able to get close to the plants at all. It is also easy to distract pests from plantings by means of old leaves, as well as tops of plantings.
This version of the fight against pests is very effective in greenhouses. Carried away by eating these waste, mollusks "forget" about all the growing plantings, therefore, they can be easily collected together with all drying waste and eliminated. Traps need to be replaced from time to time with fresh tops.
New and chemical means of fighting snails
The methods of dealing with snails are constantly being improved. There are, for example, rims and special self-adhesive tapes, which are made of copper, a covering material that has a copper coating - through them, you can carry out electrical control over the snails. From contact with copper, they receive a slight shock, which is why they then definitely do not want to cross this obstacle.
Apply in action this way very easy: the acquired methods are first diluted with water and then watered from the planting watering can where the snails are located. All mollusks die in this place within a week. However, watering will last for 1.5 months.
You can also fight with mollusks in the local area using chemical methods, if nothing else helps. Chemical methods for the fight against different pests are completely different, but the best are metaldehyde granules.
The beautiful blue granules of these drugs attract and immediately kill snails, but you need to know that it is also dangerous for pets and many people. Therefore, when using these drugs, it is worth observing all safety.
Fighting snails or slugs with folk remedies (Video)
Fighting shellfish folk remedies performed by various proven methods.
Salt treatment. The most used option for dealing with these pests is sprinkling the earth with salt, or you can spray the plants with a special saline solution, but from this, many plants can dry out or simply discolor.
Many gardeners and gardeners water the plants with a solution citric acid... The solution must be made weak.
In the garden. It is best to deal with mollusks in the garden by placing small cans with beer, lemonade and fermented compote.
Banks are dug in strictly flush with the ground precisely in the places where the mollusks are collected. Mollusks, which are attracted by the smell, are stuffed into jars overnight, but they cannot get back at all. Ash scattered around various plants gives a normal effect.
In greenhouses and hotbeds, such means are advised to spray the ground with an infusion of garlic.
On strawberries. You can fight snails on strawberries in this way: sprinkle the soil with spruce needles or put a thick layer of spruce paws on the garden bed. Spruce and pine needles can serve as excellent protection against snails, and in addition, they protect the land from drying out and fertilize it well.
The collected shellfish are placed directly in a solution of salt, washing powder. You should not put live snails in compost heaps - under normal conditions they will begin to lay eggs.
It is necessary to dig up the earth in early springthus removing the clutches of eggs laid by molluscs. A couple of times a month you should loosen the soil, weed out all the weeds and remove them from the garden.
For an example of the destruction of snails from the territory of a garden or vegetable garden, see our video
Seemingly harmless snails loved by children, but in fact - one of the most dangerous enemies of your garden. In addition to eating the leaves of cultivated plants, snails are intermediate "hosts" of nematode worms, which they carry throughout the suburban area. Therefore, the fight against snails cannot be postponed "for later."
You can find out about the presence of snails on your site by the traces they leave behind: the remains of feces, mucus and holes in the leaves. If you found something similar or noticed the snails directly, then it's time to start fighting:
- Collect these clams by hand (remember to wash your hands well after this procedure). Most snails are more likely to be found in cool, humid areas in the garden. You can soak rags in a fermented drink or fruit juice and place them directly on the garden paths... Inspection of traps and collection of snails is carried out in the morning or evening.
- Natural enemies of snails are jays, blackbirds, starlings, frogs, hedgehogs. Try to attract them to your site. To do this, you can equip small pond or make a birdhouse. Hedgehogs can be attracted with dog food. Both hedgehogs and toads should prepare reliable hiding places for wintering.
- Near cultivated plantsthat constantly attack snails, plant mustard, thyme, laurel, rosemary, sage, parsley, or garlic. Spray vulnerable plants regularly with tinctures of mustard, coffee, tobacco, or hot pepper.
- Often snails do not start in the beds, but in the compost heap. In this case, use coarse salt. Spread it in the evening in dry weather, when many snails crawl upstairs. Do not use this method on flower beds or garden beds.
- Scatter crushed egg shells around the plants you want to protect. This obstacle will become impenetrable for snails.
- You can use superphosphate and lime to fight snails. Spread these substances in strips along important ridges. Once on such a strip, the slug will not be able to move, since all the mucus from the lower surface of its body will absorb the above drugs.
- Build small water obstructions like water gutters. Around a particular plant, you can dig in a half (longitudinal section, the letter "O") of an old tire and periodically fill it with water.
- If green methods have not worked well, you can use proven chemical preparations... Meta and Groza metaldehydes are used for these purposes. Preparations should be used with caution, as they pose a threat to humans and domestic animals.
Finally, I would like to remind you about prevention. Keep snails out of your area. To do this, remove the grass cut and pulled out during weeding in time, remove from the site all the stale stones and boards, under which the snails can find a safe refuge for themselves. Avoid constant dampness in the garden. Mow and harvest the grass regularly, loosen the soil, simultaneously breaking the surface crust of the earth with cracks.
Wet, rainy weather promotes the active development of shellfish, harmful to the garden and vegetable garden. Mesh slugs and snails began to multiply with unprecedented energy. In many horticultures, summer residents are alarmed: “These pests do not spare any plants. All the salad, all the strawberries were ruined last season. Thousands of snails on each bush! " I wonder how gardeners fight back these most harmful, shameless mollusks?
Safe snail control
First of all, let me remind you about the environmentally safe ways pest control.
You can on summer cottage shelter hedgehogs. During the day, slugs hide from the sun, and at night they creep out for robbery. Hedgehogs also rest during the day. And at dusk they go hunting. Hedgehogs do not disdain molluscs.
Toad also deserves respect as a brave slayer of snails and slugs. Bring toad heels from the meadow. Provide a shady shelter for them. For example, a cave of stones among alpine slide, or put a pot of damp moss on its side, bury it halfway in the ground. During the day, the toads will hide there from the sun, and in the evening they will sink to work. In the German Gardening Encyclopedia, I saw a picture of a toad smiling at a slug crawling on a leaf. Both toads and slugs are equally active at dusk, and if during the day, you will sooner see them in rainy, cloudy weather.
Specifically for the fight against slugs, the industry produces molluscoricides - poisonous granules. They are scattered in the beds. This substance lures and kills snails and slugs. Slugs become transparent worms and die. But chemical substances still get into the soil and are absorbed by the roots of plants.
More willingly, summer residents use infusions of nettle, burdock. They chop this greens, fill them with warm water, and leave them in a dark place for three days. Garden plants are filtered and sprayed. It is curious that snails devour the nettle itself, but nettle infusions do not tolerate well.
Some gardeners go out to hunt slugs with a salt shaker. They will notice a slug or a snail on a leaf - sprinkle a pinch of salt on them. The shellfish melts like lard in a frying pan.
To protect the garden and vegetable garden, it is quite suitable and wood ash... Sifted, poured into a sieve and shook over rows of plants, dusted. The ash contains many trace elements that will be useful as a top dressing for vegetables, flowers and berry crops, and the alkali contained in it is contraindicated for shellfish. In case of mild poisoning, mollusks secrete protective mucus and, as it were, "molt". And upon repeated contact with ash or superphosphate, they will die.
But how in soviet years the workers of the famous vegetable-growing company "Leto" dealt with harmful snails and crickets. Vegetable growers poured beer into bowls, and the elusive crickets gathered there for a booze, drank 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 her is a conical plastic roof... The jar is filled with beer. It's a slug trap! Foreign slugs, like crickets, are also very greedy for low alcohol drink... The beer needs to be changed after two days - to throw out the drowned in the 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 a stronger coffee, pour it into the sprayer - and into battle!
Strawberry lovers have noticed that slugs and snails avoid contact with needles and sawdust conifers - pine and spruce. And sprinkle the ground between the bushes with needles or sawdust. Probably the thorns irritate the delicate soles of the 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. Nobody has conducted such experiments yet, but try what you get. A tablespoon of turpentine per liter of water plus 10 g laundry soap (for sticking) will be enough in my opinion. Do 2-3 treatments of problem plants in the evening, with an interval of a day or two.
Among wild plants occasionally there are those who bypass snails and slugs. For example, ferns. But what if you prepare infusions from their leaves or rhizomes and process the garden bed? Write to us what happens.
Snail control - advice from a professional
Gardeners need to know the biology of pests, ”said E.V. Volodina, PhD in Biology. - Let's remember once again that mollusks harm at night, and for the day they hide in shady places,; under the lumps of soil. I lay out fragments of slate, planks, burdock leaves "inside out" upwards, and a day later I examine them, collect them in a bucket and destroy them. 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 cross the border - they are finished. Superphosphate is valuable fertilizer and protection for plants. It is not necessary to pour much, just to powder the earth. After rain, the sprinkling must be resumed.
Hold on, snails!
A year ago, we exchanged our vegetable garden for a summer cottage in another area. They thought that we had been running the farm for so many years, they had been trained in everything, but no! Faced with a new pest, which had not been thought of before. In the new place there were many garden snails... They ate the strawberry harvest in one day, and did not allow the flowers to bloom - they ate the petals. I began to look for how to get them out. Collected a collection of tips, checked: something more, something less, but everything works! Now I share with you.
Mow the grass more often. Snails love dampness and live in tall grass.
Get organized. Planks, stones, pieces of plastic and metal are also a source of dampness and coolness, ideal for a snail.
Fill the openings 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 cut to a height of 15 cm plastic bottle and dig it into the ground at the very edges. Fill to the top with beer, kvass or syrup. Cover the top with a loosely packed bag or something else that will protect the trap from rain like an umbrella. Done! The snails will crawl to the smell of beer and drown.
Spray the plants with garlic infusion (grate 100 g of garlic, pour 1 n boiling water, leave for 24 hours. This is a concentrate: it must be diluted 1:20 with water 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 site of 12 acres, which is located on the Karelian Isthmus, where there is plenty of moisture, snails and slugs until this year were just a disaster. And we collected them, especially after the rains, in a large number in the beds, bushes, fence. And so I read that guinea fowls do a good job with this misfortune. It is necessary to accustom them by giving snails and slugs to the diet, but they do not rake the earth, like chickens, and do not destroy other pests - those in the ground, in leaves, under bushes and trees.
It was a challenge for me. While the land was freed from hibernation and was preparing to once again release the pests, I started building small house for a bird, which, in my opinion, was supposed to help cope with snails and slugs. And three adorable hens settled in our so-called chicken coop with a small aviary.
Of course, I did not hope for much help from the four-month-old Ukrainian girls. When the snails climbed and slugs appeared, after the next collection, he treated the feathered farm several times, which at first with caution, and after the third treat, accepted them as a delicacy. Despite certain fears of my wife that instead of slugs and snails they would peck her seedlings and berries, I released them within the fenced-in area. The fears were in vain.
But snails and slugs, from which there was a ripple in the eyes, miraculously began to disappear, and with them caterpillars and ants.
But the strawberries, which were inaccessible to our "nurses", as they were fenced off, were invaded by ants, which began to eat up ripe berries... My wife had to make a request to visit these beds.
To our surprise, the massacre of ants took place in the most amazing way. At the same time, the hens were not interested in berries.
Someone will find this business 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 layers and every day, if not three, then two fresh eggs are brought. And replenishment of the compost pit with chicken droppings 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 Vasilievich Logvinenko
Although snails are not agile ...
Ten years ago, we, living in the north, did not know, and had never heard of garden snails. When they appeared, it was rumored that they had brought this mollusk with a container from the Baltic states. Be that as it may, but in Karelia snails bred almost instantly and in large numbers. Apparently, this is due to the cool and humid summer. And now getting clean, not soiled by snails and not eaten by them garden products has become a problem.
Eats everything
Snails are found everywhere - in vegetable gardens, in fields and forests. Already in the distant forest clearings, where we usually collect medicinal plants, these mollusks have bred, probably, "come" there in the cars of berry pickers and mushroom pickers, and in timber trucks.
The snail is so omnivorous that the Colorado potato beetle, compared to it, seems to be a harmless creature. Although he is harmful, but selectively, chemicals can be used against him. And this seemingly slow creature eats everything, even nettles, horseradish and all other bitter and pungent plants. He eats berries and fruits right on the trees, and apples, for example, can spoil at a height of 4-5 m! What to do, how to deal with this creature?
I do pest control in several ways.
Manual collection
The first step is to get rid of weeds, especially under bushes. We try to keep the site clean. Even under fruit trees we do not grow anything, because in the grass snails are a real paradise. They like wet weatheras it is difficult for them to crawl "dry" on stems and leaves. But after the rains and grew, they crawl out in dozens, climbing the bushes.
it the best time to "hunt" for these pests. I take a household bucket, dissolve 2 tbsp in 1 liter of water. l. salt, put on my gloves and - one by one - dump the snails into the brine. They immediately hide in their shells, and then they become salted. After half an hour, not a single snail moves.
Planned collection
In hot weather, snails like to hide under objects lying on the ground - leaves, heaps of herbs, building materials. In this I help them. I spread pieces of wave slate, boards 30-40 cm long, and other wooden parts along 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 the shellfish on a "planned" basis. I lift the plank to which the snails are stuck, and with one stroke of the broom I dump them into the bucket. Over a hundred pests are in the bucket in one round! I do this 2-3 times for 8 weeks.
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 the beds
In the shade of the barn, we have a bed with horseradish, which is indispensable for canning vegetables. It is located in just such a place where the best conditions for breeding snails. Until the 2014 season, we could not keep the horseradish leaves un-nibbled. The snails attacked literally in hordes!
But I managed to resolve this problem. I made the frame of this bed from used galvanized sheet iron... From it I cut strips 24-25 cm wide. One edge, stepping back 4-5 cm from the edge, bent at an angle of 45-50 degrees. I also took dry spruce stakes, sharply trimmed upper part, impregnated with engine oil working off and stuck them taking into account the length of steel strips along the perimeter of the bed (Fig. 1, position 1). Then he cut the sides of the bed vertically and set the metal strips behind the stakes, as shown in the figure. 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 on it in the form of a bar, then it cannot move further. He 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 could not climb further, because sharp corner edge
the iron will not allow them to climb up. And so it happened. In a week or so, I looked to see if there were snails under the edge of the iron? There were quite a few of them.
So the horseradish bed was reliably protected. Nobody else gnawed the leaves. Therefore, I decided that next season I will also equip strawberry beds.
For those who do not have a sufficient amount of iron sheet, you can make a framing 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. To prevent the snails from crawling over the boards, we nail them onto 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 horns or snail watching
A nightmare of any summer resident is the death of his favorite landings. And, unfortunately, this "horror" can often now be seen with your own eyes in your 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’s time to call it extraordinary.
Where the babies come from?
"Snail, snail, put your horns out ..." - this is how my friends and I sang in our distant childhood when we found this creature. They admired him, were moved, rejoiced. And then I did not think at all that this "sweetheart" and "cutie" is not at all as harmless as it seemed to us. how many different tipsHow to deal with snails and their slug buddies, I've read in the last two years! I tried to apply many of them and, regardless of their effectiveness, concluded that fight is a fight, but prevention is more important. What should be understood by it? And the fact that you shouldn't let the snails breed.
Therefore with early spring and until the end of summer, I have recently taken it as an iron rule not to be lazy to go around my garden in the mornings and evenings (and in rainy weather and in the afternoon) and collect a "crop" of these slimy creatures. Dirty, of course, this business (as friends laugh - not for the faint of heart), but where to go? If I am not them, then they are me. Rather, my landings (which, in general, are just a part of me).
I not only walk past flower beds where plants especially tasty for snails grow, but also set traps. After all, as you know, they like to hide during the day in dark places. Therefore, I lay out small strips of slate along the beds, and early in the morning I turn over and shake off the "lodgers" that have adhered to their seamy side into 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 realized that this is not the limit of their ability to reproduce.
Here we, summer residents, often think about it? And it would be necessary, since the struggle with the consequences, and not with the cause, is a run in a circle.
If so, let's reflect. Nature begins to wake up in the 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 - the crocus. You can often see that its young foliage is all eaten away. This flower is even more convenient for snails and slugs, because in its rosettes you can easily hide from the sun. And in the fall, pests are very fond of crowding around rudbeckies, 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 full responsibility that for a short summer night they easily cover a distance of at least 3 m. Probably, this is 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 am not too mistaken.
"So, excuse me," an attentive reader may notice to me, "and then what to do with the collected snails and slugs?" ABOUT! This should be discussed separately. I do not go on daily rounds 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 destructively 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 get out on land without any problems.
But! If you make it so that bathing can take too long, this can also become a means of fighting snails, and in the literal sense of the word, and even environmentally friendly. These horned creatures are inherently not waterfowl creatures, too long stay in the water is also destructive for them. This is what I sometimes do: if during a walk I do not have a container with a chemical solution with me (or I was too lazy to carry it with me), then I throw the snails collected in my palm directly into the middle of my decorative reservoir. And they find themselves in a stalemate. They cannot swim (there are no fins or tails), which means that they will not get to the shore. And if they come out on the leaves aquatic plantsgrowing there, they still do not have long to live. Firstly, these plants are inedible for them, and secondly, frogs do not sleep either, and besides, they always want to eat. Often my five-year-old granddaughter helps me to fight snails. And I find it funny to watch how she rejoices, sending the snails on a "long voyage". This is her game.
In the magazine I saw more than once advice that from the snails it is necessary to lay out spruce branches on the beds. I don’t know, maybe somewhere there are such "vigorous" spruces, but my pests very calmly live right on them and feed on young needles, not at all embarrassed by the fact that they can prick. To my horror, I noticed that they took the habit of hiding now in my loved ones. spherical thuja, as well as thickets of low-growing autumn asters. I don’t know how to get them out of there.
But spoil them good life in compost heaps (which for them is akin to a restaurant: warmth and full of food) I have already learned. It's simple: on top of organic matter I lay out all the same slate strips, as well as pieces plastic film... You just need to remember to look through these trapping places every day and destroy the hidden pests. So sometimes we ourselves create them comfortable conditions and produce them without hesitation. Therefore, the struggle must begin with the beginning summer season and continue until closing time. And it is never too late to do this.
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