Snails, slugs are some of the most annoying pests in many gardens, orchards. They belong to the family of mollusks, they are similar in structure and biology. Only slugs have no shell, which is a snail. These mollusks constantly release mucus during movement, which facilitates their movement, and then, drying out, forms a silvery trace that signals us about the presence of these pests. I once in one night lost 15 seedlings of pepper from 40 landed. Let us together understand how to get rid of snails or slugs in the garden in various ways..
- The way snails and slugs
- How to get rid of snails and slugs: 10 ways to fight
- Snails on potatoes - what to do
The way snails and slugs
All land mollusks are hermaphrodites, they have reproductive organs of both sexes, so they can produce both spermatozoa and eggs. Therefore, each individual has the potential to reproduce. They can lay eggs up to 6 times a year. The maturation process lasts for about 2 years in snails, and slugs reach maturity in about 3-6 months (depending on the species).
In areas with mild winters, for example, southern coastal areas, these mollusks can be active all year round. When it's cold, they hibernate from the surface of the earth. When it's hot, drought, slugs dive deeper, and snails are fenced off from the outside world by parchment membrane to protect themselves from drying out, are most often attached to tree trunks, fences, or walls. During this period they live at the expense of stored fat, can remain without food for about three months. This ability is one of many reasons why they could survive for millions of years of evolution..
Wet spring, rainy summer, slugs in the autumn, snails very annoy us, eating berries of strawberries, leaves of cabbage, other garden crops. Slightly leaned strawberries to the ground, you look - in the morning half of the berry is bitten, spoiled, and cabbage leaves or Beetles sparkle with large holes, eaten by these animals with the help of a horny arcuate jaw - graters. Spoil the seedlings, young shoots of many vegetables, fruits of cucumbers, tomatoes, tubers, foliage of potatoes. They cause significant damage to winter wheat, eating grains harvested, young shoots. On the leaves, fruits of vegetables leave small holes, and young slugs, hatching in the upper layers of the soil, on tubers of potatoes gnaw out grooves of various sizes.
Slug (or slug) is a common name for a number of gastropods, which during evolutionary development suffered a loss of the shell. They develop, grow quite fast, can reach the adult stage in a few months, if environmental conditions are favorable to this. Some varieties produce offspring twice a year - in spring and autumn. Garden areas are usually chosen by the field, reticulated slugs.
Slugs are thick, fatty, slippery creatures that do not have limbs, but have two sets of tentacles in front of the body. Shells they do not, so they are called naked shellfish. The absence of a shell allows slugs to live in the soil, spend more time underground, they also find food for themselves: potatoes, carrots, beets, and we lose some of the crop.
Slugs in the vaults pollute the vegetables, leaving traces of frozen mucus, earth, fecal residues, which contributes to the rotting of the crop, shortening the shelf life of the crop. And creeping on different plants, snails, slugs spread various diseases.
With the onset of the autumn cool slugs penetrate into the cottage, leaving behind a long silvery stripes - dried mucus. Admit it: it is unpleasant when you accidentally step on your bare foot on a wet, cold, slippery slug or suddenly hear the unpleasant crunch of an unintentionally crushed snail.
The long, wet, soft, slippery body of the snail is protected by a hard shell, where it hides when you disturb it. Its typical shell is conical in shape, spiral wound. They, just as slugs belong to the class of invertebrates (animals that do not have a spine), can live under any conditions - in the sea, fresh water, on land in wet conditions. Both have two pairs of tentacles on the head with organs of smell and touch. One pair of tentacles is longer than the other, looks like a horn. These "horns" - there are eyes that are located on the tips of a long pair of tentacles. A short pair of tentacles is used to smell. Tentacles are very important for them. They do not have ears, but their amazing sense of smell helps them find food..
These molluscs are less active during cold or, conversely, hot, dry months. In wet days they can be found most often under the leaves of cabbage, under boards, stones. There they hide during the day, and in the evening they go out for food. In wet years, they can cause significant harm to 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 they sometimes act during the day, when it is cloudy or it rains. During the heat, dry weather, they may be temporarily inactive.↑ back to content ↑
How to get rid of snails and slugs: 10 ways to fight
Fight, you can get rid of them, even necessary! They can be found in the daytime under pre-laid boards, pieces of linoleum, old wet rags, in the wet places of the garden. In the warm winter of 2013 snails came across me under old sawn logs, brushwood, fallen leaves.
There are several chemical methods to deal with it, but only birds can be shed. For pets, people, this chemistry is not always harmless.
I know some fairly effective ways of fighting how to get rid of these garden pests.
1 way.Put a tablespoon or two corn flour in a jar, and put the jar sideways where you notice the silvery marks. Snails, slugs like corn flour, but, after trying it die. In the morning you will see many dead shellfish inside or near the trap. It remains only to get rid of them, collecting, throwing them away from the garden.
2 way.Dig a few pits deep, for example, with a plastic disposable glass. Fill two-thirds of the glass with beer, put it in the pit. Snails or slugs, having smelled, will necessarily crawl. Check these traps daily, get rid of pests. Add the beer as needed..
3 way.In a container with a nebulizer pour ammonia, diluted with water (proportion:). With this solution, sprinkle the plants that you want to protect from these pests. Such a concentration of the solution will not burn your plants, but will scare off snails or slugs. The smell of ammonia does not like these pests - you will save the plants from their invasion..
4 way.Prepare strong coffee (brew double dose). It is possible to prepare a repellent solution from soluble double concentration coffee. Cool, strain, charge the nebulizer. This solution can be sprayed not only plants, but also the soil around them. If you have time, then watch in the evening for snails or slugs creeping up to the treated territory. They abruptly (of course, sharply - it's boldly said, but as quickly as they can because of their slowness) turn around, creep away.
If you decide to use the third, fourth way to get rid of snails or slugs, then you have to repeat these tricks after every rain or after a dew.
5 way.Salt destroys, dissolves mollusks. But I would not advise you to use salt on the beds. Sprinkle salt on the paths or paths of your site, where traces of pest movement are seen. Salt corrodes the body of snails or slugs, they can not crawl through the salt path without harm to themselves. Once they get on the salt, they will dissolve. After a while you will see empty shells, and from slugs, as they say, there will be no wet place.
6 way.To get rid of snails or slugs, between the rows of beds fill small gravel, crushed shells, egg shells, coarse sand, a drunk coffee grounds - all this will be an "unpleasant" surface for crawling shellfish. They will not be able to crawl such a barrier without hurting their gentle tummy.
7 way.Slugs do not like plants with red leaves. If you plant around the perimeter of your site, for example, beetroot chard, "Scarlet" with bright red petioles, leaves with red veins or amaranth of this sort, which has not only bright inflorescences, but also bright crimson leaves, most of the snails or slugs will not reach your plants, save you from your presence.
8 way.Sprinkle pepper, tomato or other plants around the seedlings that you want to protect from slugs or snails, pine needles. You will simultaneously protect them from pests, and also cover the soil, protecting it from drying out. Pine needles create an acidic environment, and mollusks can not tolerate it, so they will not be able to reach the plants and damage them.
9 way.If you have hedgehogs, frogs, rejoice - this is a great way to get rid of slippery pests - for them slugs or snails - a treat!
10 way.Chemical. Stores for gardeners sell the tool "Storm" or "Meta". This powerful remedy against snails or naked slugs is a rough granule of blue color. I had to resort to this remedy (I used Storm), since the number of these unpleasant mollusks in the spring exceeds the allowable amount. I already mentioned that on the first day after the landing of the Bulgarian pepper seedlings, 15 of the 40 plants planted were eaten under the root.
Manufacturers assure that with proper use this remedy is completely harmless to people, pets, the environment, but still recommend to resort to his help only if the situation is critical.
Below, see the result of the Thunderstorm.↑ back to content ↑
Snails on potatoes - what to do
Last year there was heat, so the potatoes had to be tight - there was not enough moisture. I was assured by numerous reviews of gardeners from the Internet about the benefits of siderates. About how wonderful it is to use them as mulch, which will keep the soil moist in hot, dry weather.
I specifically identified areas for siderates. One was seeded with mustard, the other - with feces. Sowed early, once the snow came down. Just at the time of hilling the potato mowed them. She covered her two dried potatoes with a little dried grass. It seems to have sown a lot - more than a hundred was occupied by the siderates. But it was enough to cover mulch only two rows (20 holes in each row).
I decided to see where the harvest would be better - with mulch or not. And then rains, rains, rains... Without any mulch the land is damp.
But the biggest trouble was discovered recently. On these potato bushes, which are covered with dry grass - a mass of snails - small, white. Delayed until dusk, without really considering, I did not immediately realize what had happened to the potatoes - I thought white flowers appeared by night - so many of them were.
During the day they were gone, and in the evening they crawled out of this dry grass, where, apparently, they were hiding from the sun, they started to eat my potato leaves. And there were almost no potatoes on the mulch. Here such experiment has turned out.
But the tops on the potatoes under the dry grass are higher, more powerful. She looked more closely - the lower leaves of potatoes became delicate! How not to lose the harvest!
Maybe they will not eat all the tops?... It is necessary to do something urgently. To fight with such a small fry, with so many pests I was not ready.
I will certainly share how I coped with this problem..
P.S. I share... In 2015, the weather has coped with this problem. There was a wild heat all summer, including the first half of September. There were practically no snails in the summer on potatoes, other plants. They were hiding in the ground or somewhere else.