How To Control For Snails And Slugs With Chickens In The Garden

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Miscellaneous
Gardening

Snails and slugs

Thread starter bryan8
Start date Jun 16, 2013

Any tips or tricks for getting rid of slugs?

I have a 40ftx40ft garden and I cant keep the snails and slugs out at all.

I have boards down with beer traps under them and each moring I kill about 20-30 off each board and the cup of beer is loaded with dead ones also. Ive been doing this for about 5 days, and noticed less plant damage but there still there.

My garden is about 5 ft away from a field so im thinking they are coming from the field

Bryan

I have a serious snail problem. I have been picking at least 30 - 40 twice a day off of my house. And that is no lie either. The amount of poop they leave is crazy too.
I talked to a friend and he read that it has been a banner year for them. I have zero slugs, only snails. he told me to use coffee grounds on the ground surface perimeter and liquid coffee in a sprayer. He also suggests the diatomaceous earth around the ground surface.

This is just a bit of the poop on the house from snails.
I am going to try the coffee trick and diotomaceous earth.

Last edited: Jun 17, 2013

+1 for Sluggo. I tried it recently and am very happy with it. It is my new go to slug/snail killer.

I just got some Sluggo. I'm thinking it will be more effective against those little poopers.
It's non-toxic too. My dogs are in that area and I would worry about using anything metaldehyde based.

Diatomaceous earth or eggshells. I've read that in MotherEarth News but might be hard to apply on a large scale. Also if you see the slugs you can sprinkle salt on them and it will kill them.

Ever since I got chickens, I've never seen a snail in my yard

If you can let your chickens into the garden, perhaps after you clean it up for the winter, they should do a good eradication job. If you never let your chickens into the garden, or don't plan to, SLUGGO is a good product. Since starting with chickens this spring, my slug and snail population has taken a huge nose dive, even with this being a record rainy summer. Ducks are incredible slug and snail cleaner uppers!