Welches ist das beste natürliche Schneckenbekämpfungsmittel?

What different products are on the market to effectively repel snails?

We want to address that here, according to this plan:

• First, let’s list the various natural products that exist that can be used to repel snails
• With some of these products we will see whether they can be used to deter snails in a house
• Then we will do the same for the plant protection of the vegetable garden
• And finally we will see if there are better alternatives to these snail control products

The different snail control products

Here is a list of the various snail control products in existence that can be considered natural:

Snail pellets with iron phosphate: an artificial product with natural active ingredients

These snail control products are in the form of slug pellets and kill the snails that eat them.

Some consider them natural because iron phosphate, their active ingredient, is a natural mineral.

Nevertheless, the production process of these pellets can involve processing and treatment steps, which can make them less natural than some other products.

Personally, I find it a little difficult to see them as natural. Especially knowing that they could have a harmful impact on earthworms .

Fences made of lava stone (pozzolan)

Here’s another potential purchase you might stumble across at a garden center.

In the can it can easily be confused with slug pellets.

But this involves a natural material that is sprinkled on the ground (lava rock) to form a so-called snail barrier.

Why supposedly? Because I know this kind of material: it sometimes works when it is completely dry (as is the case with ash or fine sand), but becomes completely ineffective after a rain or in damp weather.

And if you read the customer reviews, you’ll see that one can can only protect a vegetable patch of 2 by 2 meters… That’s quite expensive for a product with moderate effectiveness.

Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous earth is very much a natural product because it is made from fossilized skeletons of diatoms, which are single-celled algae.

It is also an effective barrier to snails: it even kills through contact the snails that try to overcome it.

So it is an effective natural product to block the path of snails and slugs!

The only concern is that diatomaceous earth in the garden also kills through contact any insects that would try to overcome it: including beneficial insects such as ladybugs or ground beetles (snail predators).

And it’s not yet entirely clear how diatomaceous earth can affect the soil of a vegetable garden, whose job it is to provide essential soil life to nourish the plants we will eat.

A spray with snail killer

It’s a spray that I discovered by chance from the brand RepellShiel.

This spray seems to have a fairly natural composition, based on caffeine, geraniol and cherrywood essential oil.

Based on customer reviews, it seems to work for killing snails by contact (by spraying them directly with this spray if you want to), and pretty well for getting rid of snails in the house.

On the other hand, its results in protecting plants and in the vegetable garden seem to be very poor: this is a problem that often occurs with repellents in liquid form: they dry and/or evaporate quickly and their effectiveness diminishes. When it rains, the product is washed off the sprayed plants and goes back into the soil.

So it is a product that should be used mainly inside a home since its effectiveness in the vegetable garden will be very poor.

Baking soda

Baking soda can be considered a natural product because it is made from sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate, both of which are natural elements.

Adding baking soda to the soil creates an effective barrier against slugs because it works similarly to salt.

Still, while use in a home may of course be of interest, the question arises as to whether use in a vegetable garden makes sense, where rain will wash the bicarbonate into the soil, where there is little chance of any positive effects.

Brandy vinegar

Alcohol vinegar, also known as white vinegar, owes its effectiveness against snails to its high acid content. Acid that disrupts the membrane of cells in your body and can cause irreparable damage.

Similar to baking powder and spray, brandy vinegar can also be used within the home.

But less so in a vegetable garden, where the very high acidity of vinegar can damage plants in the same way by disrupting the membrane of the cells that compose them.

What effective alternatives to these products are there to protect a vegetable garden?

In Bezug auf Schneckenbarrieren sind die wirksamsten nach Meinen Tests:

• Wassergräben mit einer Tiefe von mehr als 5 cm und einer Breite von mehr als 10 cm. Sie können, um sie zu schaffen, halb vergrabene und an ihren Enden verstopfte Dachrinnen verwenden, die sich bei jedem Regen mit Wasser füllen. Denn Schnecken kommen nicht durch das Wasser und mit diesem System können bestimmte Anzuchtbeete vollständig geschützt werden;

• Eine vertikale Kupferbarriere über 5 bis 7 cm hoch. Kupfer entlädt nämlich einen leichten elektrischen Strom (bei Kontakt mit ihrem Schleim), der für die Schnecken sehr unangenehm ist und sie dazu bringt, schnell wieder umzukehren.

Als Beweis für die Wirksamkeit von Kupfer schlage ich Ihnen vor, sich dieses Video anzusehen:

Das letzte getestete Gerät ist die Barriere aus reinem Kupfer, die ich entworfen und auf den Markt gebracht habe: das Schneckennetz.

Trotzdem sollten Sie sich bewusst sein, dass Sie sich nicht mit der Installation eines Schneckenzauns begnügen sollten, sondern eine echte Strategie zur langfristigen Regulierung des Problems entwickeln müssen, die unter anderem die dauerhafte Ansiedlung natürlicher Feinde der Schnecken und die Entwicklung der pflanzlichen Biodiversität umfasst.

Um dieser Frage auf den Grund zu gehen, empfehle ich folgende Artikel:

• Test und Bilanz von 30 natürlichen Schneckenbekämpfungsmitteln

• Schneckenräuber anlocken

• Pflanzen gegen Schnecken, oder Vorbeugung durch Pflanzen

Wissenschaftliche Bibliografie

• • Wilson, M. J., Grewal, P. S., Lewis, E. E., & Gaugler, R. (2003). Biological control of slugs and snails: research needs and opportunities. In G. E. Liang & A. F. B. Tomasek (Eds.), Biocomplexity of plant-fungal interactions (pp. 397-417). American Phytopathological Society.

  In der Studie werden mehrere verschiedene Substanzen auf ihre Fähigkeit hin untersucht, Schnecken und Nacktschnecken abzuwehren. Die Ergebnisse brachten unter anderem ans Licht, dass Kupfer eine abstoßende Wirkung hat.