How To Get Rid of Garden Slugs

Few pests test a gardener’s patience like slugs. One damp night and a hungry slug colony can wipe out brassicas, shred hosta leaves and tunnel through ripening strawberries. Worse, the punishment isn’t a one-off: Grey Field Slugs, Garden Slugs and the invasive Spanish Slug return every spring, undeterred by most home remedies. Let's solve this problem for good.

The UK's Most Dangerous Slugs (for Gardens!)

Grey Field Slugs (Deroceras reticulatum) rarely exceed 4.5 cm at adulthood and exude a milky mucus.

The smaller Garden Slug (Arion hortensis) sports a sooty back and yellow to orange sole, and are only active when the temperature is above 5 °C.

Spanish Slugs (Arion vulgaris) are much bigger than both, growing up to 15 cm long. They’re coloured orange or brick red, making them easy to spot on late-night slug patrol. Not content with just plants, Spanish Slugs are omnivorous and grow at much faster rates than native species.

While it’s fun to correctly identify the slugs in your garden, all 3 of these slug species pose a threat to your growing garden.

These slugs all love:

• Lettuce

• Hostas

• Peas and beans

• Brassica seedlings

• Strawberries

• Marigolds

• Tomatoes

• Courgettes

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Slugs Never Quite Go Away

Slugs endure because their eggs hide just below the garden surface.

The big 3 slug species all favour moist micro-sites, darkness and a mild 10 to 20 °C window. A micro-site is any small pocket of ground, often measured in centimetres to a few metres, that possesses its own physical conditions distinct from the surrounding area (for example, a strawberry patch).

When winters stay mild and wet, more eggs hatch, so each season begins with an even higher baseline. Whichever slug species is invading your garden, that means a lot of slugs!

Moisture and temperature trials reveal that Grey Field Slugs lays the most eggs at about 18 °C and 53 % soil moisture—conditions matched by many UK seedbeds in early spring. If your flower beds feel cool and crumbly rather than waterlogged, slug eggs are probably incubating comfortably in the soil.

Easily monitor the slug population by cultivating a small area, away from any at-risk plants, that offers shaded refuge. Any overturned pot, paving slab or scrap of timber on bare, visibly moist soil will do. Leave overnight and check in the morning. If the wood is teeming with slugs, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands.

Cultivating a Slug-Free Garden

• Rake up fallen leaves, spent stems and other debris before they turn into slug houses. Put the waste on the compost heap instead. You can also conduct night-time slug hunts with a torch. Put any slugs you find on the compost heap, and they’ll help to break it down.
• Consider inviting slug-eating wildlife into your garden. For instance, a shallow pond will attract frogs who will happily snack on slugs.

The above steps make life hard for slugs and easy for their natural enemies.

Natural Slug Deterrents

Roman growers sprinkled ash and vinegar around grapes to keep slugs away. Medieval monks recited charms while flicking slugs from leeks. Victorian writers praised soot dustings and ducks, and wartime gardeners ringed crops with cinders when salt grew scarce. Each era combined the tools it had with scientific knowledge and nightly vigilance.

In the modern day, some gardeners swear by these alternative methods of slug deterrence. We couldn’t possibly comment!

• Copper tape around pot rims may stop slugs climbing up to eat the plants inside.
  

• Scattering sharp horticultural grit on flower beds may deter slugs from crossing, but you’ll need a fresh layer after rain.
  

• Sow strips of sacrificial crops to keep slugs busy and away from the crops you’re trying to protect.

• Snails love beer. Place a container filled with beer in the soil to attract and drown the slugs that wander from within about a metre.
  

Try these if you must, but there's only one surefire way to deal with a slug problem.

Which Slug Pellets to Use?

Historically, many gardeners depended on metaldehyde-based slug killers, but it is now banned due to the risks it poses to wildlife. Ferric phosphate replaced it as the only home-garden molluscicide and, in peer-reviewed trials, matched metaldehyde's performance when protecting hostas.

Planning Year-Round Protection

Keeping slugs away isn’t just a spring thing - it’s an all-year round effort.

• In early spring, rake stale seedbeds to expose egg clusters to air. Lightly scatter NOPE! Slug Pellets.

• During peak growth, hand-pick slugs after sundown and scatter NOPE! Slug Pellets to prevent fresh leaf damage.

• September is peak egg-laying time. While autumn crops ripen, scatter NOPE! Slug Pellets.
  

• Over winter, strip away thick mulches so frost and birds can reach overwintering adult slugs. If you spot fresh trails, consider NOPE! Slug Pellets.

NOPE! Slug Killer Pellets provide effective slug control that is OF&G approved for organic farming. Slug control becomes a yearly grind because fresh eggs outnumber reactive measures. Break the cycle by exposing eggs early, denying adults daytime shelter and hitting them swiftly with an effective killer that won’t negatively impact your garden. Now you’re armed with knowledge, you can finally say NOPE! to slugs.