I used kitchen scrap to deter slugs from eating my strawberries

Slugs can cause huge problems in the garden including eating leaves, stems, flowers, bulbs as well as crops.

While there are many ways to kill slugs, I wanted to find something that would help to deter them as well as be eco-friendly and pet-safe.

James Patridge from Greenshop said: “They will struggle with sharp or rough-textured surfaces, so adding some crushed eggshells or gravel mix around the base of your plants can act as a barrier.”

I always have eggshells leftover from cooking and baking and often put them into the compost, but I decided to add them around my strawberry plant.

I did have a mesh covering on the fruit but the slugs were still able to make their way onto the crop to eat the strawberries.

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After finishing baking I had roughly six eggshells to use in the garden which can either be placed around plants whole or slightly crushed down.

I opted to leave them in half as this was a quicker method, although it didn’t look the best in the garden.

The eggshells were simply placed on the soil around the strawberry plants as well as around the pot to help prevent slugs from climbing up the pot.

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I checked up on the plant daily while watering but couldn’t see any slugs on the plant at all, and the leaves had a lot less holes.

After the week, there were some slugs around the base of the plant attempting to reach it, but they were unable to, and I had plenty of strawberries growing.

The eggshells worked really well and I will definitely be using eggshells in the future to protect crops including my blueberries and tomatoes.

What’s more, the calcium from the shells will help to enrich the soil as it decomposes, helping the garden to thrive into spring.

Eggshells will only act as a deterrent for slugs when they are dry and it is important to note that they will lose their effectiveness if it rains. 

This means I kept an eye on the weather to make sure they were still working well to deter the pests.

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