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Gardening season is just around the corner, and as we prepare our projects for next year, we’ll remember some familiar enemies: slugs and snails.
These pests can ruin your garden, but there are several things you can do to deter them from your sanctuary.
Jack Stooks, head gardener at the royal family’s Highgrove House, revealed that while the two are different, you can catch slugs and snails together in a variety of ways.
Stooks has worked for the Royal Household for more than two decades, during which time he has presided over some of the best-kept gardens in the country.
So how do you keep stately gardens free of slugs and snails? Discover the gardener’s four methods below.
Royal gardener Jack Stooks has revealed four ways to get rid of slugs and snails from your garden as the gardening season begins.
Stooks is head gardener at Highgrove House (seen in 2013) and has worked for the Royal Household for over two decades.
Homemade Fermented Yeast Drink Trap
Stooks said making your own fermented yeast drink traps and placing them in the garden will work for both pests, but they will need to be refilled and refreshed regularly.
The traps, which can be made by pouring a fermented yeast drink into a plate, jar or small bowl, attract slugs and snails with their scent.
“With snails and slugs, it’s pretty much the same,” he told Betway, “you can catch both with fermented yeast drink traps, which you can buy ready-made online or make your own.”
‘They can be expensive, but I suggest you make them yourself from jam jars. What you need to do is dig it into the ground so that the top is at ground level. A quarter of the jam jar is placed in it and filled with the fermented drink.
You can make your own ‘drink’ by mixing water with a small amount of sugar and dry yeast.
Mrs Stooks continued: ‘Slugs will be attracted to yeasty odours, causing them to travel around the jar, which can be lightly covered with a stone. You will often find some the next day or leave them for a few days, before emptying them into the compost and redoing it with fresh drink.
‘However, this doesn’t work with snails. If you are trying to catch snails, you will need a larger glass jar, as you need a larger opening.
“The only problem with leaving a larger opening is that once it rains, it washes away the drink, so refill and change the drink regularly if you’re trying to catch them both.”
Working by torchlight
But while traps can be an effective solution, the gardener also revealed that one of the best ways to get rid of snails is to go out at night with a torch and pick them up.
By using traps, you run the risk of also trapping wild animals, such as insects, that would be beneficial to your garden.
“Another good way to catch snails is to pick them up,” added Mr Stooks.
“The ideal is to do it at night and walk with a flashlight, since that is when they are most frequent.”
“These types of animals are attracted to the light of the torch, which makes them easier to catch.”
Organic gardening
He added that organic gardening will also allow wildlife to return to our garden while naturally deterring snails and slugs from eating your plants.
Stooks said: ‘Having an organic garden or using organic ways of gardening allows wildlife such as frogs, badgers, birds and hedgehogs to return to your garden.
“These animals will naturally discourage snails and slugs from eating your plants as they eat them.”
The Royal Horticultural Society defines organic gardening as “cropping systems that make minimal use of manufactured chemicals” with a view to “emphasizing the interdependence of life forms.”
copper collar
The gardening expert’s last suggestion to protect yourself from slugs and snails was to use copper collars, that is, place a copper collar around the pots or the plants themselves.
“If you have pots and it’s easy enough to put a collar on them,” he said, “or [for] certain plants you can also do this.
‘However, I think this is a rather monotonous way of doing things. Fermented drink traps are the best and easiest way to combat slugs in the garden, but it would be nice if people could have a few different methods to try and see which works best for them.’