You may have heard: the British Royal Horticultural Society recently declared snails and slugs - notorious garden snackers - as pests no longer. “These often maligned garden visitors play a vitally important role in maintaining a healthy garden ecosystem. To that end, we will no longer refer to plant munching animals (herbivore) as ‘pests’ and we’ll be working to encourage gardeners to see these, and other garden animals, as part of the valuable biodiversity that gardens support through our research and advice,” the RHS announced on their Instagram page (emphasis ours).
Now considered an essential part of the garden’s ecosystem, these slimy little fellows help to break down organic matter, which helps to build healthy soil, and serve as an important food source for wildlife, which encourages biodiversity in your garden.
That being said, there are some slugs and snails that may destroy entire crops, so what does all of this mean for your garden, and how can you control these little fellows? If they are creating havoc amongst your crops, try these humane and natural methods of reducing their number.
The most humane (and effective) way to get rid of slugs and snails is to catch them by hand; heading out after dark or before dawn gives you the best chance of catching them in action. If you’re too busy for such detailed work, these other solutions may help:
1. Draw them away from your garden: Try planting other plants nearby that gastropods are attracted to. Consider planting a small strawberry garden (an all you can eat buffet?), or research the diets of specific slug and snail species that are giving you trouble.
2. Encourage predators: Draw lizards and birds into your garden, which are natural slug and snail predators. For more about creating a lizard-friendly garden in California, go here. For more about creating a bird-friendly garden in California, go here.
3. Remove hiding places: Remove old pieces of wood, weeds, and other debris from your garden, reducing daytime hiding places for slugs and snails (just make sure to leave some cover for lizards and other wildlife).
4. Plant species that are naturally repellant in or near your garden: Sage, rosemary, lavender, California poppy, and other highly scented plants repel slugs and snails.
5. Reconsider your relationship to your garden: While we all wish our plants to look their best, they don’t exist in a vacuum. Snails, like mushrooms, birds, lizards, and worms, have an important role to play in our earth’s ecosystem and web of biodiversity. Consider why you are planting a garden - for personal enjoyment? to enrich the local ecosystem? as a food source (just for you?) - and whether you can consider sharing your bounty with some of our garden friends.
Take the time to get to know a snail or slug; watch it go about its little life for a few minutes or hours. Even if you decide in the end you’d rather keep them away from your treasured plants, you may learn something of value about living in harmony with others on our planet, and creating a garden that adds multidimensional value. And if nothing else - you’ll get to know your enemy just a little bit better.
Sources:
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/royal-horticultural-society-rhs-will-no-longer-classify-slugs-and-snails-as-pests/
https://www.pesticide.org/slugs (offers non-pesticide slug-control options; some solutions kill slugs and snails - be forewarned)
https://www.greenthumb.com/lizard-habitats-why-your-yard-needs-them/ (article specifically for California gardeners)
https://backyardbuddies.org.au/habitats/create-a-lizard-friendly-garden/ (article from Australia; great recommendations, but suggested plants differ from our local habitats)
https://scvas.org/backyard-birding (scroll down to see info about bird-friendly gardening)
Snail photo by Filtrovany_Fotographer on Pixabay.