Spring isn’t complete without a sprinkling of April showers, which is the prime time for slugs and snails to appear. A valuable part of the garden ecosystem, slugs and snails are particularly active after rain, emerging in search of food and moisture. But their presence can also be quite a nuisance, known to feed on newly grown plants and seedlings, often leaving holes in fully grown leaves or flowers and leaving quite a mess behind in their trail.

Managing slugs and snails in the garden can be difficult, given that they’re most active after dark, so it can be hard to spot the damage they’re causing. While you might struggle to entirely prevent them from visiting your garden, and feasting on your plants, there’s one trick that will stop them from getting close to more vulnerable or precious growth.

Gardening expert at IBRAN, Ted Bromley-Hall has shared an easy method to create a barrier around your garden, that will stop slugs and snails in their tracks. 

Slugs dislike crawling over sharp or prickly materials, so creating a barrier that’s hard for them to get through is an effective way of protecting your plants from them.

Many gardeners might have heard that eggshells are a great physical deterrent, but Ted shared that: “Slugs are able to cross most sharp surfaces thanks to their secretion of a dense mucus slime. Worse still, decaying, unwashed eggshells emit a smell that attracts slugs.”

Instead, Ted recommended using thorny prunings to deter snails. “Thick cuttings of spiky bramble bushes laid horizontally provide an excellent physical barrier that slugs and snails will struggle to overcome.”

As they’re larger than eggshells, placing them around your garden bed helps create a physical barrier that is more effective in stopping the garden pests. Using crushed eggshells isn’t always guaranteed to stop slugs and snails either, while placing left over prunings down won’t attract more of them to your garden. 

Harsher garden chemicals are also a way to deter the pests, but Ted pointed out that: “The problem with any chemical or substance you use to kill or repel slugs is the effect it either has on other wildlife such as hedgehogs and amphibians.”

Instead, a natural deterrent allows you to make the most of your garden waste, while protecting the ecosystem from being eaten at.