Keep Pests Away Sprinkle baking soda on your soil with a flour sifter to keep ants, roaches and slugs away from your garden. (Be sure to avoid your plants!)
Baking soda sprinkled onto slugs will kill them. But a far more effective way to deal with slugs in your garden is by attracting birds and other creatures that will eat them.
Plants that slugs hate
As well as those with tough leaves or woody stems that they find difficult to chew. The robust lacy fronds of shade-loving ferns and thick leaves of Geranium, Bergenia (Elephant's ears) and Saxifraga × urbium (London pride) are all too thick for them to sink their teeth into.
1) Crushed eggshells/gravel/woodchip or mulch Molluscs don't like travelling over rough ground, so if they sense sharp edges, you can use this texture to deter them. 2) Coffee grounds. Slugs don't like the bitter taste of coffee grounds. Sprinkle coffee grounds on the soil around your plants to deter them.
Garlic, Lawn Chamomile, chives. Some plants repel most slugs and snails and these may have a deterrent effect when planted alongside or used to make an extract. Many gardeners swear by garlic as a natural pest control. Some say chives are effective it the leaves are tied around vulnerable plants; sounds fiddly.
As vinegar is mildly acidic, it will kill any snails or slugs it touches. However, vinegar is toxic to vegetation, so only spray snails or slugs that haven't yet reached your plants.
Crushed Eggshells
The edges are sharp enough to hurt slugs should they decided to slide over them. So, when gardeners spread the eggshells around their beloved plants, the crushed shell pieces are to form a protective barrier that slugs and snails should know better than to cross.
Some birds, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, slow-worms and ground beetles eat slugs and these predators should be encouraged in gardens. Raking over soil and removing fallen leaves during winter can allow birds to eat slug eggs that have been exposed.
Repel Pests Aphids, caterpillars, snails, slugs, and other plant eating creatures can be kept at bay by simply sprinkling some tea leaves into the soil. It is believed that this works because these creatures do not like the smell of the caffeine present in tea.
Sprinkle baking soda on your soil with a flour sifter to keep ants, roaches and slugs away from your garden. (Be sure to avoid your plants!) It's a safe way to keep beneficial insects around and say sayonara to the ones you're tired of seeing.
But practically speaking, it's not ideal. Because high concentrations of sodium are toxic to plants, if you dump a bunch of dry baking soda onto a small plant, it will probably die. Also, because sodium is soluble, it's likely to hurt or kill nearby plants that you didn't want to harm.
Mix them together and spray on your plant's leaves twice a month as a preventative measure; or spray on the leaves every three days to treat an existing fungal problem.
Plant slug repelling plants
Astrantia gives off a scent that repels slugs and snails and so acts as a natural pesticide. Wormwood, rue, fennel, anise and rosemary all have the same effect.
Egg shells are a super effective option when you spread them as a barrier ring around plants. If you live near a beach, you can also use crushed up sea shells. Broken egg shells and sea shells have sharp edges that hurt snails and slugs as they try to crawl over them.
If you have ant mounds outside, dampen the mound with water and then sprinkle about 2 cups of baking soda on it. Wait a half hour or so and pour a cup of vinegar on the mound. That combination will kill most ants. You can make a bait with half baking soda and half sugar to control ants and roaches.
Since all of our pest snails and slugs are introduced, there are limited agents that control them in Western Australia. This partly explains why they are such pests. Some predatory beetles and lizards feed on them, but birds and rats are the most effective. Small pointed snail.
Slugs are active for most of the year but are a particular problem in spring, when there's plenty of young growth for them to eat. They are mostly active after dark, especially when it's warm and damp. In hot, dry weather they bury themselves in the soil or hide in cool, dark places to avoid dehydrating.
Spraying WD40 on the outside of pots or planters will make them too slippery for slugs to climb. This can be effective for pots and planters that sit on a path or patio, but should be kept away from soil or other plants.
Diluting brewed coffee with an equal part water is plenty to do the job. Coffee grounds have been recommended in the past as an organic method to keep slugs and snails out of your flower and vegetable beds. Grounds will repel slugs, but the USDA research team confirms that a caffeine solution is more effective.
Sprinkling salt on slugs will kill them, but avoid sprinkling it too much as plants are also adversely affected by an excess of salt. It's therefore best used when far away from valuable plants.
Does Epsom salt work for slugs? Yes, Epsom salt for slugs can deter slugs in the same way that regular table salt can.
Slugs love citrus, so don't throw away your orange or lemon rinds. Instead put them in your garden to bait the slugs and snails away from your plants. In the morning, check your peels to see if any slugs or snails are on them, and remove these from your garden.
Does Vaseline deter slugs? Yes, Vaseline does deter slugs. If applied around the circumference of a pot it will protect the plant within. This is because Vaseline's greasy texture is very difficult for the slugs to climb over.