Lesson 3
Slugs and snails — the night raiders
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Slugs and snails do most of their damage between 10pm and dawn, when it's cool and damp. By morning, all you see is the silver trail and the holes.
They love seedlings, lettuce, hostas, dahlias and most soft new growth. Containers are safer than open ground, but a balcony with damp pots is still fair game.
A layered defence
- 1Inspect pots and trays once a week — flip them and pick off any hiding underneath.
- 2Wool pellets or crushed eggshell rings around vulnerable plants — soft slug bellies dislike the texture.
- 3Beer traps: sink a yoghurt pot, fill with cheap lager, refresh every few days. Highly effective for ground beds.
- 4A nightly torch hunt for 4 nights in a row after rain breaks the population.
- 5Last resort: ferric phosphate slug pellets (the organic-approved kind, NOT metaldehyde) under a propped tile.
Water in the morning, never at dusk. Damp soil at nightfall is a five-star slug hotel.