Keeping slugs and snails out of your garden
Slugs and snails can ruin your garden and your plants. There are several ways to keep them out of the garden and from eating your food. Some ways won't harm them but will keep them away naturally and some will be a more modern but harmful approach to getting rid of them.
One way to keep away snails is if you have birds in your area. This way you can let nature take its course without having much to do with it. Black birds like to eat snails so if they are common in your area put out some bait for the birds to attract them to your garden. Make sure of course that you put the bait out in a part of the garden where they won't harm your crop or where you aren't growing anything. You actually might try putting it out in another place on your lawn that is near enough to the garden that the snails will be attracted but not near enough to where the birds will bother the garden. Put out some bait for the snails too. Some bait that works is of course snail bait that you can buy at the store but wet dog food also works. You can just let the birds eat them. The birds will eat the snails and take care of the snail problem in your garden.
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You can also bait the snails to come to a certain part of your garden and just pick them up when they get there. This way if you don't have black birds in your area you can still use a bait to catch them.
Sometimes nature can't take care of the problem. To keep snails out of your garden, make sure that you weed and get rid of anything lying on the ground. Snails and slugs like to make their home from dead plants so don't attract them with an unkempt garden. Get rid of any logs or even rocks that might be in your garden.
Ashes, cedar, eggshells, sawdust, and sand are all things that will push away snails. They are repelled by any of those items so putting some around your plants will help keep them away. You have to make sure that you are still keeping your garden clean and weeding it every day.
If your snails still won't go away, you might think about hiring a professional to get rid of the snails. They can usually get rid of them with pesticides. You can also try using a bait to get them to one spot in your garden and then having the professional put pesticides only on that part of the garden. That way your whole garden won't be infected.
You can't always just use one method of getting rid of snails. You usually have to use more than one way. Combine a few of these methods if you have a snail problem. The larger the snail problem the longer and harder you should try these methods.
