Slugs come out at night, making an infestation hard to spot until it's too late.
Slugs chew through the vegetable garden and any tasty flowers they find. Instead of using toxic pesticides to keep slugs away, you can mix up a homemade natural spray using a common cooking ingredient -- garlic. This pungent herb makes plants in your garden unpalatable to slugs and other pests. Does this Spark an idea?
Slugs
Slugs, along with their shell-carrying relatives the snail, belong to the class of gastropods. Their slimy, mucus-filled bodies leave tell-tale trails through the garden and over foliage. When slugs infest a garden, they eat through vegetables, flowers and other plants. Slugs thrive in cool, damp conditions. During the day, when the sun is out, slugs hide under the cool soil. Slugs feed at night and on cloudy days.
Garlic
Sprayed on plants, garlic makes the foliage unpalatable to slugs. According to biologist Gordon Port of the University of Newcastle, slugs dry up when they come into contact with the oils in garlic. He says the garlic causes the slugs to produce too much mucus, eventually causing them to shrivel up and die. Edible garlic keeps slugs off the vegetable garden without the need to use toxic chemical pesticides.
Preparation
Dice or process one to two large garlic bulbs. The bulb is the whole head of garlic made up of individual wedge-shaped cloves. Remove the skin from each clove. Finely chop the garlic cloves using a food processor or a kitchen knife. Mix the garlic with 5 gallons of water and shake well. Put the solution in a spray bottle and spray the tops and bottoms of the leaves and flowers in your garden.
Using Garlic Spray Effectively
Garlic spray works for one to three days during dry weather. Reapply two to three times a week. Rain washes the garlic oil off the leaves, reducing its effectiveness. Monitor gardens carefully during rainy weather and reapply the garlic as soon as the weather clears. Store garlic spray, refrigerated, for up to two weeks. Pick off slugs by hand as you find them to help keep infestations down. Garlic spray also keeps other insects, as well as hungry rodents, off the plants.
Tags: Garlic spray, unpalatable slugs, vegetable garden, your garden