The comment about "cheap beer" made me remember a slug remedy we used a few years back. Just mix some flour and yeast with water and stir it up. Smells a lot like beer and seems to attract the slugs just as well. I put the mixture in a plastic cottage cheese container, cut a hole in the top so the slugs could get in, but they never came out. The top slows evaporation down a bit.

For 2 years now I've used vapour rub, wiping a thin layer about an inch wide around pots and beds, works an absolute treat, it stays on for the whole season, it doesn't leave dead slugs around my garden leaving them for the predators and own label brands are less than a £1 a jar, time and money saving.

When we moved to our new house, the neglected garden was full of slugs. I promised our children 5 eurocent per slug/ snail and a little bonus after each 10 slugs. We counted them at the kitchen chalk board. To my own surprise it worked perfect. Sometimes they found 40 slugs in 1 round. I’ve never had better slug hunters. :-) The game lasted a few weeks, but was very effective. Now (4 years later) we still have a normal population.

Around pots , Vaseline is a great barrier do a strip of it around your pot about 2 to 3 inches wide , the slugs can’t grip to it and fall off and it’s waterproof , or do aa ring of double sided sticky tape with salt stuck on one side they touch it and soon bugger off without killing them .😁❤️🇬🇧👍

I've had good success with planting decoy seedlings with my prized seedlings. I kept losing zucchini seedlings and finally out of desperation started planting mustard seeds in a ring around my zucchini (or in a proposed planting spot, a few days ahead of time, and then plant the seedling in the patch of mustard seedlings). The slugs seem to prefer the mustard and spared the zucchini (or zinnias, etc). As the mustard grows I can thin or remove as desired - but it's also a fantastic trap plant for cabbage moths and aphids, so I tend to let some grow to maturity throughout the garden. Anecdotally, pests seem to prefer the mustard plants to other brassicas as well. The bees and especially hover flies love it. I just buy mustard seed from the supermarket spice aisle.

In the winter months, when there are no more vegetables in the garden, I let the chickens run loose, then I have less problems with snails in the spring.

Honesty is the best policy... calling Coors what it is -- "cheap nonsense" -- you don't want to waste good beer on bad slugs.

I have been following your channel for years. I love how precisely you give your information without rambling like many others do, and you have a great sense of humor while teaching us. I always look forward to your videos!

I tried to be the bigger man...but after so many destroyed seedlings, I am firmly in the "death to the slugs" camp

so interestingly, I've just found an excellent slug and snail lure, completely by accident. I have a stone mushroom about 8 inches high that bought years ago, and I finally decided to paint it. I went for the traditional red and white toadstool colours and ever since, each night when I go out in the garden, its covered in slugs and snails. I pick them off and relocate them to a nearby field. they all seem to be on or heading for the white spots. I think you could apply the colour scheme to any rock and have the same result.

Something you may want to try is, all the old bits of lettuce that you clean up to try and discourage the slugs, stick them under your planks of wood, so they get attracted to shelter and food all in one crafty (and free!) trap.

This is the best slug control video I’ve seen! I agree that removing them to other areas really does reduce their population in the garden. Some of your tips are new to me and I’ll give them a try. (I usually just collect them and take them for a walk into the woods to settle in a new area.) I especially love the humane and environmentally friendly approach you seem to have to controlling them ❤️ thank you for this!

I stopped letting slugs be in my compost pile. I believe their eggs are then transplanted into the garden when you move in the compost which then reinfests your beds with slugs. Homemade beer traps work excellently. As an aside, one year a raccoon broke into the garden and drank all the beer traps! She was after the ripe strawberries and added a drink along with the berries!

I use a garlic wash on my hostas, there’s lots of recipes online, but it’s basically garlic boiled in water then used diluted in a watering can. Slugs really don’t like it. You have to use it more often in rainy weather 👍🏻

I've been sprinkling Epsom salt around my plants, mulching with aromatic cedar shavings and spritzing everything with essential oils, such as peppermint, mixed with a little water and a tiny bit of a surfactant like vegetable glycerin. I also installed bird feeders and planted lots of shrubbery that attract birds and bees. Our climate is damp and cool with lots of rain, so the gardens have little chance to dry out. Between the slugs and the wildlife it's a constant battle to grow anything all the way to harvest!

I went slug and snail hunting after dark for a couple of weeks and that really helped reduce the numbers. Good to known we can relocate them to the compost heap where they will do some good.

Snails and slugs are thriving in rainy and cool Northern Ireland, so gardening is a bit of a challenge for those who don't keep chickens roaming around and don't want to use chemicals! Thanks a lot for sharing your tips and tricks!😉🌱🌿🥦🍎🌶

I tried the saucers of beer for slug traps. Didn't catch any slugs but found out my dog had a drinking problem.

My grandad used to cover the edges of his garden beds with coarse sandpaper dusted with talcum powder, it didn't stop them but the dry sharp surface reduced the amount of slugs willing cross over it and the trails were clearly visible so he knew how many he needed to find and remove. Edit - They all went over the hedge into the nearby woodland, usually as far as he could throw.

I grow extra cabbage and lettuce. Pull leaves off, lay about 200mm away from your tender plants, go out when dark and collect them up to move on.

Maybe luck but I layered my ever hospitable cold frame with sandpaper and also my shelves in the greenhouse, it had a huge effect. Most seedlings survived for the first year ever. The more coarse the better. No area was left uncovered and it seemed to survive the rain too. Yes I will relay it this year but think I've got my answer. Planting out to the main garden this year I'm going to create some sandpaper rings and see how that goes.

GrowVeg is definitely my favorite gardening channel

You can also make slug bait with some bakers yeast, sugar, water, and flour. The sugar/flour/water feeds the yeast which offgas and attracts slugs! Beer works well, but if you don't want to waste your last ale it's a good workaround

I'm 2 Floors up. No Slugs. Sometimes Woodlice though. 👍 Mind your Dogs with Slugs & Snails, you don't want them eating them. Lungworm. TFS GV, & take care too everyone. ❤🙂🐶

I live in a clay soil area and slugs own this place. Planted out marigolds , woke up with 1/2 of them gone, flowers and leaves. Following night, at 11pm, went out with a torch, a plastic tub with hot and very salty water, and metal pegs to pick the slugs up. picked about 500 slugs 😫 Yes I was counting. these are just the ones I found at that particular time! They we’re eating all my plants and flowers. They were on my mint plants, onions/chives, leeks and all. No plant is slug proof at all. I’m sick of them.

One thing I’ve done that’s not mentioned here is turning my soil up and over at the end of the growing season once overnight frosts start. From what I understand, it disrupts the next generation. I did this last year and it seems to be giving me a terrific result, and thank goodness because between them and the cabbage moths, my poor veggies and I were STRESSING lol

Hi Ben! Just to add to your list, one barrier we have found effective in keeping back the slug attacks are the stalks of spikey plants such as bramble. We cut them up into smaller pieces and lay these in little stacked circles around the plants. Thanks so much for your videos. Your enthusiasm is compelling! 😃

I have over fifty pot's of flowers in my front garden and use seven slug traps around my hosta's. The rest of my pots rarely get attacked which include agapanthus, salvia's, alpines, fuchsia's, hebe's, daylilies, African daisy's, alstroemeria's , cranesbill geranium's, delosperma. In the flowerbeds I have eight slug traps placed beside hostas. The bait I use in the traps is water, sugar, flour and dry yeast.

The best most comprehensive slug video I've seen! Excellent resource - will be sharing with my community garden.

Love your shooting angle - sprawled out straight on the ground, putting everything into perspective.

We've avoided tilling but tried it last year and saw a significant reduction in slugs. I've also found coffee grounds to be effective. They don't seem to like to crawl over them.

Thanks again Ben, I love your posts. I’ve read that the beer is smelt by slugs miles away and this way you actually attract even more slugs to your garden

You don’t have to use beer in your slug trap. Here’s an alternative home-made recipe: 1 cup water 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon flour 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast That’s all folks… it’s the yeast they’re after, not the beer. 😘

Your channel, along with Self Sufficient Me, has been invaluble to learning more about gardening for me. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for yet a great video! I love your non cruel perspective and advice - very helpful!

Since attracting all of the birds with feeders a few years back, I rarely ever see slugs anymore, there's a couple of snails but there seems to be a weekly massacre looking at the shells on the slabs. Touch wood, noones eaten any of my seedlings so far, even the local squirrel jumps over them to the feeders and ignores everything in the beds.

Great video! I tried all sorts of things but beer seems to work best. I also discovered that marigolds are their favorite plant to eat. I planted a variety of flowers in a group and the marigolds were eaten down to nubs almost overnight. They also nibbled on the sunflowers but didn't touch the calendulas. They started a bit on the nasturtiums once they finished the marigolds, but not too much. Next I'm going to plant decoy seedlings of them, much like Uschiaala did with mustard. By the way, they will also hide under cardboard.

I relocate my slugs and snails to my chicken coop. The chickens love it. The slugs and snails not so much...

Very educational. Also I never tire of your enthusiasm which inspires me to get going in my garden.

Love your energy, your enthusiasm and excitement, and the time you put into these videos They are deeply appreciated and insightful! I'll be sure to put these into action 🥰🙏🏼 Love and Light!

Brilliant options presented Ben. I’m going out to my shed now to throw away the slug pellets. You are the David Attenborough of gardening 👍

I played over and over the part in your video of you singing. I placed my cell phone in my garden with your melodious tune and all of my slugs rolled over and died!

You do make me smile Ben - thank you for entertaining as well as informing us! :)

Great info on slug control. Thanks! I couldn't help but laugh at the idea of intentionally leaving standing water to attract frogs... you must live in a very magical place with no mosquito control issues!!! I am constantly battling standing water to prevent my yard being hospitable to my personal summer enemy #1!

I saw this method in a gardening magazine. Take an empty plastic soda bottle, cut off the top part, invert, staple it in place. Then use the slug pellet stuff, pouring some in. The slugs get in, eat and can't get out and die. So it isn't affected by rain or toxic to small animals and pets.

It wasn't near my veg thank heaven, but the other day I counted no less than 36 slugs in the back yard. 36! I did find some on an overwintered green bell pepper plant. I pick them off with leaves and throw them back into the woods. Living in the deep, dark, and dank eastern hemlock forest makes slugs a part of daily life. They really like beer. I mean they REALLY like beer.

Having tried many methods the only system I have found to be 'almost' successful is an electrified fence. No joke! two strips of wire stapled 6mm or so apart around my raised beds and a battery in a waterproof box linked across. It does not kill them but certainly gives them a headache when the complete the circuit. A couple of hunting trips at night to clear up any that were within the boundary before switch on and (hopefully) my veggies will survive. I say 'almost' successful as I have spotted a few clever ones arching their body over the second wire as they slither across (ha ha). Got to hand it to them, for such a small creature they are very inventive. I suspect to see subsequent generations abseiling in from above or leaping over with a motorcycle 'Great Escape' style!

I've always found slugs and snails to be quite cute, so I really like the idea of just relocating them to the compost!

Garter snakes are great slug defence. I have two photos of snakes living in my garden, swallowing whole, slugs 2-3” in length!!! Those are the slugs that escaped my nightly slug hunts and avoided the beer pots, which work really successfully. Thank you for an informative video. Stay organic 🙏😍👍

I particularly liked the trick of using them for compost.

Excellent to the last second. Thank you for this video. Take care and have a great weekend, DA

Thank you Mr Ben : ) The nematoads for vine weevil and slugs work really well.

I started sprinkling chilli powder in my small garden to deter the neighbours' cat (she liked my garden as her toilet, sadly) and it not only annoyed the cat, I also noticed the slugs were eating the powder and leaving my seedlings alone. At some point when the chilli powder got wet from the rain, the slugs were kind of rolling in it (they looked like those corn cheese puffs coated in chilli...) and other slugs were eating them. Quite disgusting! Slugs are cannibals! Anyway, chilli powder works really well to deter the cat and distract the slugs, so hey, give it a try. I live in a very windy area and we get plenty of rain, too, so I have to keep on reapplying it. But it works.

I absolutely love your videos! They really make me yearn for a larger garden

LOL! Great thumbnail! Thank you for all your inspiration and information!

I love your videos. I do not live in an area where slugs are a problem, but I love the information and the way you present it!!!

I do prefer the trap-and-relocate method. It's made a good dent in my snug problem and I have neighbouring lizards, hedgehogs and frogs so they've hopefully been enjoying my efforts. It's not perfect and I've lost a few seedlings but most of my plants are thriving. Thanks for the video x

Great advice thank you, you always make me giggle, I just wanted to remind everyone that DE can also harm the pollinators and we all know that our bees are precious 🐝 so please use it carefully.

The first year we planted our veggie garden it was destroyed by slugs. Plants literally disappeared over night. We tried organic slug pellets, which didn't kill slugs, but would kill your plants if it got near the roots. Rats & mice came to nibble on the pellets, didn't seen to affect them either. We tried egg shells, copper wire... none of it worked. Beer traps worked but there were sooo many slugs we couldn't keep up. Finally, we got ducks! Indian Runner ducks & Khaki Campbell's. They have the the run of the garden and now our slugs issues are minimal. The ducks live in the veggie garden, we net off plants we don't want them to nobble on us. 4 years on and it is working a treat!🦆

I attract and collect slugs by putting some food scraps under a piece of wet cardboard weighted down with a rock. In the morning I check each of the traps and collect the slugs. Really works well! I love your videos and always look forward to them. Thanks for all of the great slugging ideas.

Hi Ben…nuts as always!😍 Popping a sand path around the compost heap hinders the varmints trail to where the veggies are greener 🍀 Thanks for the constant entertainment while learning 🍓🥜🐌

I've made a border of crinkled up tin foil that has worked amazingly so far, but hardly aesthetically pleasing or long term 😅 so I'll be trying some of these. The critters always get relocated to the compost heap to speed things along 👍

One of the main problematic issues with DE - apart from its total ineffectiveness when it gets wet (and I'm in one of the wetter parts of England ...) - is that it kills beneficial insects, such as the ground beetles which predate slugs, just as effectively as it does slugs. That's something that's rarely mentioned and, in my book, is a MASSIVE disadvantage.

I just discovered and tested a way to stop slugs and snails that really is 100% successful - for 15 years my veg crops have been roughly 70% destroyed by slugs/snails despite trying EVERY method I found on KZfaq and elsewhere. I came across a system of putting copper or corrosion resistant wire around the boards on raised beds that is then connected to a 9 volt torch battery and watched a lot of videos showing that the electric shock makes the creatures shy away and claimed 100% success. I did the set up and watched most slugs and snails just cross the wires to reach my veg! Then I connected a 12 volt car battery and hey bingo, most were incinerated and some gigantic ones immediately turned away resulting in not finding one slug or snail or damage to plants in the past month. Of course if you object to slug/snails being killed its not for you. I am a big fan of GrowVeg and hope the channel will test this method and share with fellow veg growers!

Hot tip: use chopsticks to pick up the slugs to avoid slimey hands! Personally I go slug hunting with my garden scissors… ✂️

Brilliant informative video with clever phptography and supporting animated graphics! Thanks you very much

I love your Videos Ben always so full of great info and explanations. Thank you. 👍👌

Thank you for not killing the slugs and just relocating them. All living things have a right to be here

Thanks, Ben.. I appreciate that you relocated the slugs. I almost didn't watch this video 😂

Excellent. I am sharing this video far and wide.

I have a sweat scrapper for my horses, it is aluminum and has a curved end. I just scoop up the slugs with that and then sling them off into the woods. I can throw them a good 20 feet or more! I have one hanging in my greenhouse by the door. The sweat scrappers are super cheap and you do not have to get the slime on your hands!

Plant a few sacrificial lettuces next to your priced plants. Snails and slugs zoom towards the lettuces. Pick them at night and cut them up. Their primitive nervous system suggests they feel no pain, so I don't feel guity about it. Their remains also provide food for birds the following morning. Don't throw live snails away as they are well known to have a strong homing ability. Watch a David Attenborough programme if you don't believe me.

Hi Ben. Ive found in my home garden and allotment normal play sand stops slugs. I use it around the outside and floor of my green house and around young plants. Planks I put out for a few weeks. The rest I leave up to our frogs, toads, and resident hedgehog. Yet still on occation I use Nemetoads if I think the slugs and snails are becoming too prolific. Love the video especially the google eye head set. lol sould be a regular feature. 😂 Allotment owner and pretend gardener. I follow your ideas, advice and guidance. My friends at the allotment think I'm a great gardener. Not: its all you. So thanks for making me look like I know what im doing. Lots of love and best wishes Kim x

I did a test with copper tape about five years ago, similar pots/compost/plants and the one I used tape on was slug free all year...the other was not and I've used tape ever since. Double the strips up to increase width.

Great video. Informative and fun. 👍🐌🐌🐌

Love your channel, been watching it for tips for our allotment. I don’t like to harm anything so am looking for natural alternatives. One thing I’ve learnt is slugs don’t like onions or garlic. I planted some radishes in the onion patch and they left the radishes alone, planted elsewhere they obliterated them in 2 days. Going to plant lettuce and chard with the spring onions and leeks and where the onions were to see if the scent still puts them off!

great information about natural slug control which is so important thank you! one more slug repellant is getting fleece from sheep and placing the fleece around the base of the plant ... the slugs do not like touching the hairy sheep fleece.... and the little slug song was excellent!

Love the humour.....thanks Ben🥬🌶🥕

Thank you, this is very helpful and a great reminder that there are many non-harmful methods of dealing with slugs and snails. I've found beer traps to be the best method, along with picking them off in the early mornings and evenings. To prevent evaporation, I cut the top off a juice or other kind of Tetra Pak drink container. Pour beer into the rest of the container. Turn the top upside down and fit into the container. This allows the slugs to get in but not out, as well as preventing other animals and insects from drowning in the beer. Other than that, I've just accepted that slugs and snails are part of nature, and there will be a small amount of inevitable loss. Thanks again for another great video!

Noticed you had raised beds, or at least beds with a wood border. Add sharp sand to fence paint/stain add a dash of exterior PVA glue and paint the wood so the sand sticks to the wood. When it’s dried, the slugs won’t climb the wood border as they don’t like the rough surface. It works.

I press in a border of slender wild blackberry branches (very thorny, and they grow everywhere here in the Pacific North West). Although it takes some time to put in place, it is an effective barrier in wet or dry conditions.

Just tried the beer trap yesterday. When I came out to it this morning I had 8 slugs in it, keeping them off my courgettes and lettuce! Thanks Ben!

Fresh STRULCH works very well. I use it for strawberries, runner beans & dahlias. I also have islands of strulch where I can put pots of seedlings when I am hardening them off. 🙂

I've had good luck with diatomaceous earth against the hordes of snails and slugs we have here in the very damp, cool Pacific Northwest of the US. Feed stores usually sell it for far less than garden shops, and a small amount seems to be enough to deter the slimy pests.

I’m thinking of using all of your tips at once, to make sure I definitely nail them! I have oranges, beer and a head torch at the ready.

Some have suggested to me, but I've not tried it yet; is putting copper meat around the base of the plants. You curl it up in a rope and cut it, circling the base of a plant anoy 1-2 inches and it keeps the slugs out. I have mostly use DE and that works well.

I relocate mine to the compost heap as well. I also use plastic cloche covers that I slightly bury into the ground around the plants for seedlings until they're big enough to handle a nibble.

I've just realised the frogs/toads we had in our garden until a few years ago were living rent free, as we were riddled with slugs and snails! Then one year left/forgot about a Halloween pumpkin on our patio, I can't remember now if it had mostly disappeared or had been hollowed out, either way something had eaten it, and surrounding it was about 50 snail shells, but that year, and since, we had almost no slugs or snails! The frogs/toads disappeared that year, too 🤷🏻

Good vid! Two things to add: you can by nematodes tablets to dissolve in water, or you can make your own (the recipes easily found online). One physical barrier that does help is an edge with a sharp angle around your garden bed. Slugs can't crawl over sharp angles, so if you put up a barrier that leans outward and down, they won't be able to crawl into the bed - however, keep in mind that slugs can also dig (the majority of them stay underground at all times), so unless your bed edge is burried around 20 cms deep, you'll still get some slugs in.

Goodness me, good advice, lovely dog and singing too! 😀

Loved this! Thank you!

Just tried the wooly idea but as i don't have a sheep or a dog... have been using the lint from the dryer and my vacuum cleaner bag contents. So far so good :-)

Only you could make this very squeamish-about-slugs person chuckle during a video about the slimy beasts! I acquired my distaste of the creatures after accidentally stepping on a nice big fat one in my bare feet shortly after moving to my new home in the country. Yuk! It took a lot of washing to get that slime off the bottom of my foot and I learned my lesson to not go barefoot in the garden when running out for a quick tomato or some herbs while cooking. Much as I dislike them, I dislike killing them as much so I am happy to hear they are useful in the compost pile - I am going to start doing that instead of putting them in the freezer in a ziploc bag - it kills them painlessly I've been told but still don't like the idea of killing them. Thank you for your very enjoyable channel!

I had mine hedge hogs in my garden last autumn and seen 3 this spring, still an armada of slugs... Found more than fifty in my green house, hope they are all collected by now...

Excellent video, thank you!

I refuse to be tidy, I resort to capture/relocation and beer traps in the areas I want to protect. Another predator are Leopard slugs they eat other slugs, I've got some massive ones roaming the garden. I leave piles of garden waste in amongst my herbaceous border, slugs and snails are brilliant at breaking it down to fantastic soil. The circle of life :)

Great video! I like to use a flour sifter to apply the diatomaceous earth. Easy to handle, precise, and don't get it on my skin. Cheers!

This year my area had fantastic amounts of rain in May and parts of June. It is astounding how many slugs can pop up on a rainy day where you saw none previously. The biggest problem I had was how they mauled young pepper seedlings I had on a low deck while I was hardening them off, killing some and stunting many more. I also noticed that the slugs absolutely love pea leaves, but fortunately the peas had already produced and I was about to take them up. And where there were peas, they did not bother peppers or tomatoes.

This is probably my third year gardening at my house and this is the first year where I’m really having a problem with slugs. I’m currently using the beer technique and it’s working but I seem to have more coming as my bean plants are being destroyed right now. I’m also going to try the watering in the morning instead of during the evening. Great video btw.

Overturned cabbage leaves have been working for me, similar to your citrus suggestion. Thank you for all of this. So helpful to see all the ways you suggest battling slugs. I was expecting to find big slugs in my garden when I went hunting for them, like the ones you show, but mine have been tiny and whitish pink. I’m guessing babies?