Slugs are pests that eat vegetables and berries that grow in the garden. The appearance of the slugs resembles snails, only without a shell. The colors of these molluscs can be different: green, gray, brown, sometimes orange. Most often, a naked slug is found in the beds. It is necessary to get rid of it immediately, but it is not so easy, therefore, in order to secure your garden, you will have to work hard.

About the pest

It is not difficult to find the appearance of slugs on your beds - holes or silvery traces begin to appear on the leaves of vegetable, berry and fruit crops. In addition to leaves, these pests eat fruits and berries. In addition to the fact that holes from eating remain on vegetables and berries, slugs tend to leave behind mucus on strawberries, strawberries, apples or cabbage, after which the fruit and vegetables lose their presentation, and there is no desire to eat such products.

Slugs are also intermediate hosts of helminths, which means that they can infect livestock that eat the grass on which the slug crawled, as well as poultry, which can peck them.

One of the difficulties in the fight against molluscs is that it is almost impossible to detect them during the daytime, due to the fact that they are mostly nocturnal. Being hygrophilous pests, on sunny and hot days they hide in the ground or under the foliage of plants. By periodically watering the plants, it is impossible to wash the slugs, they reproduce even better from water.

Slugs

However, there are effective ways to deal with slugs, which means that if the question arose of how to get rid of slugs on strawberries, you should carefully study the information below in order to save your harvest and forget about these pests for a long time.

Slug control methods

Ants on strawberries - how to get rid of

If slugs or snails eat strawberries, we will find out what needs to be done by considering all the available means to destroy them. Controlling these pests is difficult, but possible. There are 3 methods for killing slugs.

Chemical

Metallic hydride is one of the main chemicals that helps to effectively resist slugs and protect the crop from pests. It is easy and simple to use this substance, because it is enough to scatter its granules over the beds. Slugs eat them and die in a short time, having received intestinal poisoning. If you find a large accumulation of mollusks located in one place, you can scatter metal hydride on them. The substance is capable of penetrating the organisms of slugs through the skin, after which poisoning occurs.

Freshly slaked lime or ground iron sulfate also fight slugs well. In addition, a mixture of bleach and stove ash is used by gardeners. Tobacco dust is popular, which scatters around the garden, in places where slugs appear. Pests begin to throw off poisoned mucus from themselves, after which the procedure for treating the beds with chemicals must be repeated.

Metal hydride

It is important to note! When the strawberries are already ripe, you cannot use chemical agents to destroy pests, because thus, you can harm the health of the person who eats these berries.

People's

The appearance of slugs on strawberries is upsetting, how to deal with them will help answer folk methods that are environmentally friendly.

However, in this case, it is worth working hard. First, you need to remove or reduce the number of darkened and wet areas in the garden (favorite places for slugs). Then it is necessary to periodically remove garbage, possible organic residues, weed the weeds. In the autumn, it is advisable to dig up the soil, this will help in the destruction of the egg laying of slugs and other pests. During the digging, the eggs will come out, as a result, with the arrival of winter, they will freeze.

For active pest control, you can attract frogs, hedgehogs or birds. In order for the birds to begin to frequent the garden, you can build birdhouses, hedgehogs are usually arranged with houses for wintering, lure them with milk. You can build a small pond for frogs.

Also, one of the easiest and safest ways is to plant special herbs, the aroma of which acts on slugs as a deterrent.

Lavender-folk method

For such purposes, the following plants are suitable:

  • sage;
  • lavender;
  • rosemary;
  • garlic;
  • thyme.

Such herbs will scare away not only slugs, but also another big lovers of strawberries - ants.

Preventive measures should be taken, for example, after the strawberries are planted, the seedlings are sprayed with a solution of ammonia and vinegar (1: 6 with water). This remedy will help protect plants from slugs. You can also use mustard powder (5-6 tablespoons per 10 liters of water).

One of the popular remedies for slugs among gardeners is strong instant coffee. They are sprayed with strawberry leaves from the outside and inside, in dry weather, it is recommended to process the coffee soil. After the precipitation has passed, the spraying procedure is repeated.

Dry mustard, slaked lime or wood ash (30 grams per square meter) are also suitable for protection against slugs. These funds deoxidize the soil well, pests try to avoid such soil, which means they will quickly leave the site.

One of the most sought-after slugs is the use of salt. It is poured over the area where slugs have accumulated. The salt literally eats away at the shellfish.

Mulching strawberry beds with foil

A good method of getting rid of slugs is to mulch the strawberry beds with plastic wrap. With the coming of night, slugs gather under the film, because there is high humidity, and with the arrival of the daytime heat, because the film tends to heat up, and the soil under it becomes hot, the pests die, because do not withstand high temperatures. Mulching the beds with coniferous needles will also effectively protect from pests.

Hot peppers can be a good remedy for repelling slugs. To make the tincture, you need to take 1 kilogram of pepper, cut it into small pieces, then add to a saucepan with a volume of 10 liters, boil the mixture for 5 minutes and let it brew for several days. For convenience of further use, it is recommended to pour the tincture into bottles. Before spraying, half a glass of the mixture is diluted in a bucket of water with the addition of grated soap.

You can create a kind of fence for slugs made of coarse sand, crushed eggs or nutshells. The "fence" is located around the protected plants, thereby protecting them. These molluscs cannot tolerate rough surfaces due to the fact that their abdomens are damaged, so the plants will be safe.

A well-known folk remedy for fighting slugs is the use of beer. These pests are real connoisseurs of this intoxicating drink. It is worth putting containers with beer on the garden bed, as its smell will attract these nasty shellfish to itself. They fit into a container with a drink and drown in it, not being able to get out (the edges should be 1-2 cm above the ground). Beer should be changed every couple of days until all slugs are gone from the area.

Many gardeners, in order to protect strawberries from shellfish, sprinkle the soil with dry soil after watering the beds. slugs don't like dry places. Also, drip irrigation is arranged, or drainage is installed under the beds. The latter method is costly and time consuming, but very effective.

Mechanical

One of the easiest ways to kill slugs in your area is to collect pests. To do this, you must put on gloves and take a bucket or other container in order to put the collected shellfish there. Further, the slugs should be attributed to the territory of the site and already there, choose a way to get rid of them forever, so that they no longer have the opportunity to return to the garden. The pests are very slow and will not be able to escape, so this method is very easy. However, it is not suitable for especially sensitive and fastidious gardeners, because slugs have a rather unpleasant appearance.

Healthy strawberries

Thus, the best way to get rid of slugs on strawberries is best chosen only by a gardener. To choose one or another method for dealing with slugs, you must carefully study all the methods presented above. Each gardener, like a plot, needs an individual approach.

Each method has its own advantages and some disadvantages. For example, at the beginning of fruiting of fruit and berry crops, the use of any chemicals is prohibited, because it can harm the person.

The most experienced farmers, who have already faced such a problem as the appearance of slugs in the beds, already know what exactly will help in getting rid of pests. Analyzing numerous reviews on the Web, one can state the fact that the most popular means of fighting this type of pest is salt, it is this folk method that most effectively helps to destroy slugs. Also picking up pests by hand. It is safe and effective. The least popular among gardeners is the extermination of slugs by chemical means, because of the danger of getting berries or vegetables poisoned with chemicals on the table.