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  • From: "Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Garlic proves the kiss of death to slugs and snails
  • Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 07:21:09 -0400

Garlic proves the kiss of death to slugs and snails
By David Derbyshire and Roger Highfield
(Filed: 13/09/2003)

Slugs and snails have a vampire-like aversion to garlic, according to
a study that confirms centuries-old gardening folklore.

Scientists have shown that the creatures are repelled by the pungent
odour of the herb and will shrivel up and die within hours of exposure to
its oil. Garlic can now join coffee grounds, beer and cinnamon as
environmentally friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides.

British gardeners spend £30 million a year battling slugs. In addition
to their taste for garden lettuce, cabbage and hostas, the creatures are a
major problem for commercial growers of brussels sprouts, winter wheat, oil
seed rape and potatoes.

"Nobody has really found a definitive solution to the problem of slugs
and snails," Dr Gordon Port, a biologist at Newcastle University, told the
British Association science festival in Salford.

"They are very well adapted to their habitat, live hidden away in the
soil and are coated with a layer of mucus that can help protect them from
substances. Farmers and growers have difficulty controlling them with
conventional bait pellets, which are particularly ineffective in very wet or
very dry weather."

Conventional chemicals can also be toxic to other creatures in the
soil as well as to birds, shrews and field mice. Garlic's pesticide
properties have been part of gardening folklore for centuries. Monks used to
grow garlic next to vegetable crops to deter unwanted visitors.

Dr Port tested a commercial extract of garlic oil sprayed on soil
around crops and compared it with eight other slug repellents. Slugs and
snails avoided contact with the oil and died within hours of direct
exposure. The garlic also prevented slugs eating Chinese cabbage leaf.

"The tests show that it is certainly a potent chemical where slugs and
snails are concerned and if used appropriately we know it's mostly harmless
to man because it is used as a cooking ingredient," he said.

"We need to carry out more tests to find out its commercial
potential."

Although Dr Port tested a highly refined extract of garlic oil
available in shops, crushed garlic cloves may be just as effective.
"Research suggests that a home-made recipe of crushed garlic bulbs mixed
with water could work on small-scale gardens," he said.

Earlier work at Newcastle found that garlic killed slug eggs laid in
the soil. Dr Port believes oils in the herb damage their nervous systems but
cannot say why it is so lethal.

"Beer also works extremely well. If you put a pint of beer and a pint
of water in the garden, slugs and snails will be attracted in equal numbers.
It's just that they never climb out of the beer again."






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