Forget snail grain: Garden expert reveals the best trick against snails

The same game every year: my garden becomes a buffet for snails in spring and summer.

The massive appearance of the pests, such as the Spanish snail, is related to the damp weather. Perfect conditions for the crawl animals to spread explosively. But what really helps against the slimy invasion?

I have that to my colleaguesMattias Nemethasked by landidee.de. As a vegetable breeder and owner of a lavish natural garden, he already has just about everyonetried to keep the nude snacks away from his green protégés. He gave me his most effective methods for snail defense.

Victim plants for the snails

Sounds paradoxical, according to the expert, it is very effective: feed the hungry snails. Mattias Nemeth only puts certain perennials and vegetable plants in his garden so that tie snails plunge on it and eat them. "Use sacrificial plants", he calls that.

Everything that snails love is suitable as sacrificial plants. This includes, for example:

• Spinach
• Salat
• Carrot
• Sugar beet
• radish
• Basil
• Dill
• Cucumber
• Chinakohl

You shouldbeforethe bed plants you want to protect. So the creepers plunge onto the sacrificial plants and spare the rest.

Tipp:If you have little space, you can also put plant parts such as lettuce, cabbage leaves or carrot shells as edible barriers in front of the beds instead of plants.

Get rid of snails finally

In order to curb the snail epidemic, it is important to collect the snails, said the expert. Mattias Nemeth uses a trick: he positions a wooden board in his garden. The snails collect under this because it is nice and damp all day.

If you pick up the board, you will find a real snail assembly underneath. And that ends up in the garden of Mattias Nemeth directly into the chicken coop. Probably the most organic type of snail destruction.

According to the expert, killing the snails is the only effective method against the pests.

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Gentle snail death

If you have no chickens or ducks available, the snail expert Dr. Heike Reise in an article of theWeltto kill the snails using boiling water. The animals are immediately dead and would not suffer unnecessarily.

Collect the snails in an old bucket and pour it over with sufficiently boiling water so that all animals are covered with water.

The cutting of the snails with scissors or a knife is also a quick death. On the other hand, salt or baking powder should not be used to kill the naked snails because the animals slowly and painfully died.

All natural tips for snails can also be found in the article by Mattias Nemeth on Landidee.de: Fighting snails in biogy garden: The 7 best tricks

Even more pests in the garden? They should pass these home remedies: