They come at night and eat up vegetable and flower beds in a very short space of time. Snails are a real pest for enthusiastic gardeners, especially if you don't want to use chemicals like slug pellets etc. But that's not always necessary, because with a few tricks you can make your garden less inviting for snails.
How can lavender be used against snails?
Lavender can be used effectively against snails by planting lavender bushes as borders, making a lavender decoction and spraying the plants with it, or spreading lavender mulch around the plants. These methods take advantage of the plant's intense scent, which snails don't like.
Snails don't like aromatic plants
Each snail-hostile garden should include strongly scented, aromatic herbs and other plants such as
- Lavender
-
Thyme
- Sage
- garlic
- Nasturtium
- and peonies.
You can take advantage of the voracious mollusks' aversion to the plants listed by planting dense herb hedges - at least one meter wide - as bed borders.
Lavender decoction to repel snails
There is also a natural, non-chemical way to combat snails. Make a strong decoction from dried lavender flowers and spray your plants regularly. This brew is made like tea, but has to steep for a few hours. By the way, garlic water also helps a lot. The brew is made as follows:
- Scald two or three handfuls of dried lavender flowers with one liter of boiling water.
- You can also add finely chopped garlic cloves.
- Let the mixture steep for a few hours until the lavender water has cooled down.
- Strain out the solid ingredients and fill the scented water into a spray bottle.
- Now spray the endangered plants with the lavender water - especially around the root area.
- Repeat this measure every few days, definitely after every downpour.
Lavender mulch against snails
Furthermore, a mulch made from cut and dried herbs (lavender, thyme, sage) promises to help against the snail plague. To do this, distribute the chopped herbs like mulch over a large area around plants and beds. The intense scent will reliably keep the dreaded pests away.
Tips & Tricks
Many hobby gardeners swear by so-called beer traps that are supposed to attract snails. To do this, fill a cup with beer - preferably wheat beer - and bury it in the ground, but the opening should remain free. The snails will crawl in there and drown. However, only use this trap specifically and not constantly, otherwise more and more snails will be attracted from neighboring gardens.
