The insider secret gardeners use to keep slugs out of garden borders and help your plants thrive
How to tackle these garden pests while strengthening your plants
EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this article included a quote from a purported expert whose credentials we have not been able to verify. The quote has been removed. We regret this lapse in our verification process and have updated our internal protocols to reduce the risk of recurrence.
As we’re welcoming the warmer months with the arrival of spring, we’re also getting to one of the wetter points of the year, and this warm, wet combo is the perfect time for slugs to thrive. Each year, keen gardeners look for ways to deter these pests and while we were doing so ourselves we discovered an insider secret of using fertiliser to deter them. But is fertiliser actually bad for slugs?
Is fertiliser bad for slugs?
Using coffee grounds in the garden is a popular slug repellent and salt is a known slug killer, and this is exactly what using fertiliser against slugs is based on.
The two types of fertiliser that have proven effective against slugs are either high in potash or high in nitrogen, such as urea, which has been found to kill both slugs and their eggs.
High-potash fertiliser like this one is great used in the summer for bigger bloom on your flowering plants and for bigger crops when it comes to tomatoes and other vegetables.
Urea is a soluble nitrogen fertiliser that can kill both slugs and their eggs. But it's also used to promote growth of leafy vegetables and it's applied at the time of sowing.
Similarly to urea, this Chempak plant feed also contains high levels of nitrogen which makes it perfect for green vegetables and can be used all year round.
However, using too much feed in your pots and beds will damage your plants, so don’t overdo it with the pot feed.
Additionally, even if the fertiliser doesn’t kill the slugs, it will make the plants more resilient when attacked. ‘By using fertiliser on your potted plants it will promote healthy plant growth and strong plants that are more resilient to being attacked and eaten by slugs,’ notes Steve Chilton, garden expert at LeisureBench. So it’s a win win.
But, of course, there are always alternative ways to repel and get rid of slugs, from slug tape to salt.
There are plenty of ways to control and deter slugs such as by using nematodes or encouraging wildlife will reduce their numbers.
You can deter slugs with herbaceous plants such as foxgloves, fuchsias, pelargoniums and geraniums. Slugs don’t like plants with hairy or scented leaves either, so you can use these around your leafy plants as a deterrent.
Either way, you don’t need to helplessly tolerate their presence in your garden or on your patio as there are a myriad of ways to wave slugs goodbye.
