How to get rid of slugs: Gardener shares two natural repellents
Wave goodbye to slugs with these two revolutionary tips.
Slugs can be a real pest – particularly when they start munching on your favourite plants. However, one gardener has revealed two unexpected solutions to permanently rid your garden of these troublesome molluscs – and they’re entirely natural.
“Trouble with slugs, eh? Tired of using slug pellets?”, the expert queried on TikTok (@notmrspock_fact). “This is what I do. I had problems for years with slugs on the dahlias and look at them now, all the leaves are actually perfect because I use these – chives!”
Generally, slugs despise onions, so planting any of their relatives – including chives and leeks – is an effective deterrent. This trick is also endorsed by TV plant guru James Wong, who asserts that slugs are among many insects that can’t tolerate the chemical they release.
Primarily, this is a compound known as ‘allicin’ which aids the plant in combating harmful bacteria, while giving onions their distinctive strong strench. “They stink – I can smell them from here. They hate chives, so plant these in with your plants,” @notmrspock_fact continued, focusing on the chive plant in his garden.
If you’re especially concerned about slugs attacking your lupins, the gardener has another useful tip. This involves dropping two crushed garlic cloves into a pint of water to create a spray.
Like onions, garlic also boasts the slug-repelling compound allicin. “Give [the plants] a spray – the slugs hate garlic! Facts,” he advised.
The gardening tip triggered quite the reaction on TikTok, with users eagerly endorsing the effectiveness of the method. One user exclaimed: “I put garlic around my garden bed and it really helped!!! I never thought about garlic water,” while another chimed in: “Great idea! I use garlic stench water!”
But if garlic doesn’t keep the slugs at bay for you, don’t fret. There are plenty of other budget-friendly and simple solutions to try.
Scattering crushed egg shells around your plants is one idea, as a Mirror article claimed it often works wonders.
Experts at Rentokil explained: “Crushed egg shells work as a great home remedy of slugs. This is because slugs don’t like moving across sharp objects, although it isn’t not impossible for them to do, they just prefer not to.”
“…Broken nutshells work in the same way as egg shells when getting rid of slugs [too]. Break up the nutshells into small pieces, and create a protective barrier around your plants. Any slugs that come near your vegetables will soon turn the other way.”
