Snails are difficult pests in the garden that will completely eat up the lettuce plants you have just planted in no time. It's no wonder that many gardeners prefer to grow their vegetables in raised beds - in the hope that the slimy creatures won't come up here. However, this hope is often in vain because the animals can easily climb up vertical walls.
How do I protect my raised bed from snails?
To combat snails in raised beds, you can use coffee grounds as fertilizer, mulch made from sawdust or wood chips, sheep's wool strips and snail-repellent plants such as sage, savory and chamomile. In addition, collecting snails and a bird-friendly garden are helpful.
Natural home remedies for fighting snails – that helps
So if you find snails in the raised bed, you should act quickly. Since the animals reproduce quickly - and lay numerous eggs in the ground, from which the offspring are then recruited - containment is the top priority. However, you don't want to use chemicals, especially in raised vegetable beds, as the organically grown vitamins should remain free of any toxins. However, you can first try the following proven home remedies:
- Fertilize your plants with coffee grounds. This contains a lot of nutrients, but snails don't like it.
- Mulch around the plants with sawdust or wood chips.
- Place strips of sheep's wool around the plants.
- Plant sage, savory and chamomile around the outer edges. The herbs keep snails away.
And last but not least: Make your garden bird-friendly, because many of the local garden birds like to eat snails.
Collecting decimates the snail offspring
In the case of an acute snail infestation, the first thing that helps is collecting them. Check your raised bed thoroughly (preferably in the early morning or late evening, as snails only come out of their hiding places at night) and remove any animals you find. A classic beer trap (€8.00 on Amazon), but also bricks or wooden boards laid out in the bed will help you collect.
When nothing helps: chemical treatment against snails
If the snail infestation is too extensive and you don't know what else to do: When it comes to chemical treatment, snail pellets based on natural iron-III phosphate are the least toxic and also the most environmentally friendly. Active ingredients such as methiocarb and thiodicarb, on the other hand, are highly toxic, even for useful garden creatures, and should not be used for this reason alone. Preparations containing the active ingredient metaldehyde, on the other hand, can be problematic for gardeners with dogs or cats: the pets often react very sensitively to the product. In the soil, however, the water-soluble metaldehyde is dissolved without leaving any residue into its components water and carbon dioxide.
Tip
The best remedy against snails is thorough prevention. Read here how to make a raised bed snail-proof.
