Contents
In Today’s post we will look into the best 100% working methods to control slugs and snails in garden. These methods repel slugs and snails in your garden and most importantly it’s 100% Humane because you are not killing these creatures. Let’s build this inexpensive DIY slugs and snail fence and see what happens when they try to cross this barrier.
Introduction
Slugs and snails are actually cute-looking creatures, but they eat away a lot of your garden, leaving only plant or leaf skeletons. They are active during the night and really difficult to get rid of. In our previous posts, we discussed so many natural methods to control slugs and snails like using a beer trap, food grade diatomaceous earth boundaries, sprinkling Epsom salt, encouraging natural predators like birds, frogs, toads, chickens, and stuff like that. But none of these are 100% effective and in fact, some of these are difficult to implement.
Barrier or Fence Method
In this post, we will discuss the barrier or the fence method using copper wire or copper tape and show you the 100% effective electric fence method. Some of you might be worried hearing the word “Electric”! Do not worry, it’s 100% safe for humans and pets because we are using just a 9V DC battery which does not cause any electric shock and is, in fact, quite inexpensive, permanent, and 100% working method. Inexpensive! Yes indeed, because the battery will not be consumed unless the slugs and snails complete the circuit by trying to cross this barrier.
Many companies sell some slugs and snail copper tapes and claim they repel these creatures. No doubt copper is a repellent for slugs and snails, but there has to be a good concentration of copper in the tapes and also the tape has to be more than 2 inches wide to create the copper repelling effect on the snails.
DIY Slugs and Snail Electric Fence
Now let’s quickly build this DIY slugs and snail electric fence in three simple steps:
Materials Needed
a. 9V Battery with its connecting wires. You can also try using a 3V battery for smaller pots. But the best effect is seen with a 9V battery.
b. Bare or non-insulated copper wire or any bare metallic wire, preferably a galvanized wire because it resists corrosion. You can also strip some copper wires from old electric wires if you have some.
c. A small plastic container as a battery holder. You can even use a small glass bottle to build a waterproof housing for the battery.
d. Optionally you may need a soldering gun, glue gun, wire cutters, and staplers particularly if you are installing on wooden containers or raised beds, then you may also need some insulation tape and other stuff as required.
Step 1: Waterproofing the Battery Housing
For better durability and waterproofing, place the battery into a plastic container and seal any openings to make it waterproof using a glue gun or any other method. Try to make a downward loop of the wire, so that water does not get into the unit.
Step 2: Wrapping the Copper Wire
Wrap the copper wire around the containers in two parallel lines. Make sure the distance between these two lines is not more than 2 cm and also make sure they do not touch each other. This can even be installed on raised beds or wooden pots using staplers. You can also stick copper tapes in a similar fashion especially if you use plastic containers. These tapes come in one-sided stickers and are easy to fix on plastic containers. After fixing these two lines, you can solder the wires from the battery, one to each track and fix the battery housing to the container properly to avoid water exposure and any extreme weather.
Step 3: The Connections
It’s simple! Take both ends of the top wire and “twist” them together, do the same with the bottom wire. Connect one line to the positive terminal of the battery and the other to the negative terminal. That’s it. It’s now an open circuit and not consuming any battery power. You can optionally check the continuity of the wires or copper tape if you have a multi-meter and also the voltage running through the line.
Conclusion
Let’s see what happens when slugs and snails try to cross this fence. You know these are slimy wet creatures and when they try to cross the track they complete the circuit and get a nice shock and get repelled. Please read about Common Garden Pests and how to control them.
Video Guide on How to Control Slugs and Snails in Garden
Watch Video Below on how to get rid of slugs and snails in garden using humane method.
