The Best Ways to Keep Slugs and Snails Out of Your Garden

Snails and slugs may seem like charming little garden buddies, but if they infest your hostas or other garden favorites, they can easily chomp a lot of holes in the leaves that can damage your plants. Fortunately, once you’re aware of the problem, there’s a lot you can do to get rid of slugs and snails and help keep them away for good.

Try these expert tips for spotting signs of an infestation, getting rid of these little guys, and ensuring that they never come back.

Telltale Signs of Slugs or Snails in Your Garden

Snails and slugs can easily infest your garden without you realizing it, as they tend to avoid hot, sunny days, and are more active at night or when it’s overcast and you’re probably not out in the garden to see them.

Chewed up foliage—especially young, tender leaves and hosta plants—can be the first sign of an infestation, along with silvery trails on your plants that are left by the slime they produce as they move along the area.

If you suspect that snails or slugs are the culprits, you may need to do some nighttime sleuthing with a flashlight, or take a look under rocks and in other damp, sheltered spots where they can thrive. “Scout out the situation in your garden really early in the morning,” says Theresa Rooney, master gardener. “You want to nip that in the bud, because they can lay thousands of eggs, so letting them go can let the population really get going.”

Techniques for Getting Rid of Snails and Slugs

Fortunately, these are not one of the more difficult garden pests to eradicate from your garden—and with a few homegrown techniques, you can do a lot to keep the slugs and snails in check.

Create a gathering place

To wipe out most of the slug and snail population in one fell swoop, try placing a few layers of newspaper or a board near the plants that are being attacked, and use a hose to make sure it gets wet, Rooney says. “They’ll hide under that at night, and early the next morning, you can lift it up, and scrape off the slugs or snails.”

Pick them off your plants

Slugs and snails aren’t exactly known for speed, so you can easily pick them off your plants when you see them and dispose of them or remove them from your yard.

Lay traps

You may have heard of using beer traps, where you nestle small bowls (look for ones with straight sides, like a tuna or cat food can) into the soil, and pour in a little beer. (Rooney recommends sticking with cheap beer—and not your best microbrew.) The yeasty smell will attract the slugs and snails, who will fall in and drown in the beer.

You can also use commercial traps with iron phosphate, a material that’s safe for other animals and insects, but will kill slugs and snails. Just be sure to follow the package instructions to ensure that you use it effectively.

Remove the affected plants

“Figure out what plants they’re going for, then move them elsewhere in your garden,” Rooney says. “Just be sure to clean everything thoroughly before you do, including swishing the roots in water.” Otherwise, you may bring some snail eggs along with you and create a new problem in the plants’ new home.

Once the snail or slug population has declined, you can decide if you want to move the plants back to that spot or keep them in the new, snail-free zone.

Use diatomaceous earth

Use diatomaceous earth to create a circle around the plants that are getting attacked—just make sure you get the spiky kind, not the powdery version that is meant for pools. This barrier will deter slugs from getting close to your plants.

How to Prevent Snails and Slugs in the First Place

Snails and slugs do some good in the garden, helping dead garden material to decompose. (That’s why you’ll often find them in compost bins or piles.) But there’s a lot you can do to keep them from arriving in your garden in the first place.

Encircle the plants with copper wire

Fun fact (or not so fun, if you’re a slug): The mucus that makes the slugs slimy interacts with copper, and will give the slug an unpleasant shock if it crosses copper wire. That could be enough to cause them to turn back and avoid your tasty plants if you place a ring a few inches away from the roots of your plant.

Welcome in some predators

Some beetles, birds, snakes, toads, skunks, and possums will all munch away on slugs and snails, so look for ways to invite some of these predators into your space to keep your garden in balance, Rooney says. It’s a perfect time to add a birdbath or other feeders or shelters that’ll welcome this wildlife to your yard.

Keep your garden tidy

Dead and decaying plant life and moist, dark spots are where they thrive—so anything you can do to alleviate those conditions will make your garden less hospitable to slug and snail population growth.