How to deter slugs and snails ethically.

Now we are spending more time in our gardens and nurturing our plants that we have lovingly grown slugs and snails can be seen as a pest.

There are a few simple tricks we can use to keep our plants safe but allow these slimy fellows to go about their business and do their important part for the wildlife of our gardens. They are great at clearing rotting vegetation and are a great source of food for birds, hedgehogs, mammals, amphibians as well as slow worms. So we want them in our gardens, just not munching on our plants! Simply keep your egg shells and crush them up. Put them on the soil around your plants, it makes it very uncomfortable work trying to cross the sharp egg shells and deters them from getting near your plants. Another simple way to keep them at bay is to save the ground coffee from your coffee maker. Slugs and snails hate the smell of coffee, so mixed with egg shell for good measure you can protect your plants, the coffee and shell will decompose, so no damage done! NEVER use slug pellets or other chemicals or poisons. As I mentioned they are a favourite food for many of our garden visitors and by eating poisoned slugs they can be affected too.