How Can I Control Slugs? What About Snails?

These slimy critters like to hang out where it is moist and shady, often comming out in the rain. They can also attack plants in sunny beds, provided there is a place to hide out during the day, like under rocks, landscape timbers, pots or mulch. Slugs and snails tend to create through-and-through, irregular-shaped holes in leaves, not along the edges. (In contrast, most insects start feeding from the outside of a leaf and work their way in.) The surest way to identify slugs and snails is to visit your garden after dark with a flashlight. Look beneath leaves.

Should you squash these slimy critters on sight? Not so fast! Most snails only feed on dead plant materials, acting as part of nature's recycling crew and returning nutrients to the soil. They're usually beneficial to your garden ecosystem. Slugs, on the other hand, can often be found voraciously consuming tender living shoots and leaves. There are some exceptions to this pattern, such as invasive snails that cause destruction to garden plants and some slug species that strongly prefer detritus. But generally, gardeners will need to be on guard against slugs and not snails. Click here to explore more backyard friends and foes.

Coffee grounds, wood ashes, sand, crushed eggshells, and diatomaceous earth (DE) all combat slugs when sprinkled around plants—with DE being the most deadly. Another barrier option is copper tape or copper wire.

Click here to learn about other pests that may create holes in leaves.