I deterred slugs from eating plants using ‘simple and effective’ product

Young seedlings and plants are by far the most vulnerable to slug attacks, meaning they are often in full force during the spring months.

After planting a variety of vegetables and finding them eaten by slugs, I decided to take measures to deter them away.

There are a huge number of products on the market which can kill and harm slugs, but I opted for a solution without poison, using copper tape.

After picking up the Defenders Slugs Away Barrier Tape in my local garden centre for £4, I was apprehensive because I wasn’t sure if it would actually work but I thought I would give it a go.

The product can also be picked up from Amazon as well as B&Q for around £5 for a four metre strip of copper tape.

The tape’s description on B&Q’s website reads: “Defenders Slug and Snail Barrier is a simple and effective way to protect plant pots, greenhouse staging, raised beds and cold frames without using poison slug pellets.

“When slugs and snails attempt to cross the copper tape, a tiny electrical charge is produced which will humanely repel them.”

The product was extremely simple to use and involved simply peeling back the sticky tape to the desired length and placing it around pots.

I decided to place it around some strawberry crops, a blueberry bush, a sweet pea container as well as tomato plants and some mint.

After doing this two weeks ago, there has been no trail of slugs and my crops are finally flourishing without tiny bites taken out of them.

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The four metre tape has easily covered eight plant pots with enough tape for around four more, meaning the tape is extremely affordable.

With a £4 product covering eight plant pots, this works out at roughly 50p per plant pot, depending on size because some of my pots are larger than others.

The tape also has a four star rating on Amazon, with more than 1,000 reviews raving about the product, so I will definitely be using this in the future.

The experts at pest prevention company Green Protect said the copper tape will last a long time due to the robustness of the material.

They added: “It won’t cause any serious harm or long-term damage to the slugs but it will stop them from attacking your plants.

“It is also a very subtle solution in terms of aesthetics, with the tape being a similar colour to most plant pots meaning it will largely be unnoticeable.”

As well as taking steps to deter slug from eating crops, gardeners can also try planting herbs near crops to naturally deter pests as well as using eggshells.

The pests will struggle with sharp or rough textured surfaces and so adding some of these to the base of plants can act as a barrier.

To use eggshells, make sure they are clean and dry, remembering to remove the inner membrane before scattering them outside.

If the weather is forecast to rain, eggshells aren’t the best deterrent as they must remain crunchy in order for them to be effective.

It may also be worth companion planting if slugs are becoming a real nuisance. This involves planting strong scents near appetising plants for slugs to help them stay away.

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