If you want to protect your plants from the snail plague but don't want to harm the animals, you fortunately have numerous alternatives to poisons and deadly traps. One of them is the so-called snail collar, which is available to buy in stores. But you can also make it yourself if you're in a hurry or don't want to spend unnecessary money.
The magic word is: yogurt cups. They are built in such a way that they have the same effect as the purchased snail protection, i.e. the snail collar. However, this not only makes the snail defense effective and free, but you also use the empty cups (at least for a while). How does the snail protection with yogurt cup work?
Yogurt cups against snails: The perfect last-minute protection
Grab a yogurt and finish the cup. Your children will certainly be happy to help you with this. Once the dairy product is finished, you can start making the DIY snail collar.
- Clean the mug thoroughly with dish soap. No yoghurt residue should remain as this can spoil and possibly make the plant sick.
- You can now let the yoghurt pot dry or dry it if you are not in a hurry. But it can still be used even when it is still wet.
- Using a sharp knife, cut off the bottom of the cup on a suitable surface.
- The snail protection with yoghurt cup is now finished. Place the yoghurt cup with the protruding edge upwards over the plants you want to protect. In my case it's my young amaryllis.
A notice:You could also put the sharp cut side up. However, since it's difficult to cut it nice and straight (as you can see with my mug), it wouldn't look quite as good as the edge of the mug.
More effective ideas against snailscan be found here.
Plastic drinking cups as an alternative
We have already mentioned that you could put the cut side of the yoghurt cup up. You could also use this if you want to use plastic cups as an alternative. In this case this is actually necessary, as the edge of the cup in this case neither protrudes nor is difficult to cross in any other way (it is nicely rounded). However, after cutting off the bottom, the bottom edge is extremely sharp and this makes it impossible for the snails to cross it.
Are your plants already too big for snail protection with a yogurt cup?
Then use buckets. If the quantity is larger, yogurt is also sold in small buckets and these also have a protruding edge that makes it difficult for snails.
So the principle is the same: clean the yogurt bucket, cut off the bottom and place it over the plant.
This is what purchased snail collars look like
Do you already know that one?Do-it-yourself electric snail protection? It is also harmless to the molluscs.
Cover photo: Deavita
