I'm a gardening expert - here are the best ways to prevent slugs from destroying plants
- UK horticulturalist David Domoney gave This Morning viewers his top tips
- READ MORE: BBC Garden Rescue star reveals four 'near-indestructible' plants - including two that are 'slug-proof'
A gardening expert has revealed his top methods to prevent slugs from causing garden damage.
Horticulturist and celebrity gardener, David Domoney, 61, from Wiltshire joined ITV's This Morning to share his advice.
The creatures can appear in large numbers and are often relentless in eating their way through a variety of plants, flowers, and food produce.
Although the Royal Horticultural Society now recognises snails and slugs as beneficial to a garden's ecosystem, when you step into your sanctuary on a sunny day to find holes in your precious plants, you might feel otherwise.
So, David joined the ITV show to share his easy and affordable hacks to deter slugs from chomping on foliage.
Horticulturist and celebrity gardener, David Domoney (pictured right), revealed his top tips for preventing garden damage by slugs on ITV's This Morning (David is pictured with celebrity chef, Phil Vickery, left)
First, David instructed gardeners to avoid watering plants at night because the moisture encourages slimy critters.
He said: 'They like the moisture, so no watering last thing at night. If you water late in the afternoon, the sun can dry the ground first and that helps.'
'The trails they're leaving is helping them navigate their way back, so add a little bit of vinegar to the trails to help clear them,' David added.
For years, gardeners have also used homemade beer traps to prevent garden slugs from damaging foliage.
David said: 'Slug traps are also pretty good. You put them into the ground and add beer.
'Whenever I'm buying these, I usually keep a couple of centimetres above the ground, you can use a container as well... and the slugs will come.'
The yeasty odours found in beer attract slugs - not the alcohol. They love naturally fermenting yeasts that found in overripe fruit, which is also why slugs feed on decaying plant material.
To build a beer trap, fill a cup or trap with beer - preferably lager - and dig a hole in the garden that the cup can fit into. Slugs will fall into the cup and eventually drown in the beer.
The celebrity gardener said eggshells can serve as an efficient barrier between slugs and plants (pictured: slugs caught by David)
However, David warned against using slug pellets because 'they're not great for the garden at all'.
Next, he advised viewers to make barriers to prevent slugs from accessing plants. He said: 'There are barriers to stop slugs, they move over with a fluid movement…as they glide, so they don't like grit.
While it might seem unusual, crushed eggshells can also make an effective barrier to slugs when sprinkled on the ground around plants.
'Alternatively, you can save your eggshells once you have opened them and taken the eggs out and crush them, because slugs don't like crawling over that,' David said.
His next tip was to put a skirting around plants. He said: 'You can buy little skirts to go round the bottom of the plant… but you can use wool just as much.
The gardening expert said that copper tape can also be an efficient slug repellent (pictured: stock image)
'Wool has got microscopically lots of tiny scales, which the slugs do not like going over because it is itchy on the bottom, and it also dries up some of their [trail].
He also advised gardeners to buy copper tape, which is considered a natural slug repellent.
David said: 'Copper tape is another one…slugs don't like crawling on top of that, it gives them an electrocution, or you can buy pads as well.
Simply place copper tape around the rim of your plant pots to function as a deterrent for slugs.
The gardening expert's last piece of advice was to opt for fragrant plants as a slug deterrent.
'The last thing that is really good for slugs... are plants with fragrant leaves that slugs don't really like eating, things like chives, onions, lavender, and rosemary… planting them in the borders do really well.'
David added: 'They don't like eating anything with tough stems or woody leaves.' He also listed Astrantia as a good option because the scent repels slugs.
