Slugs will stop eating plants for good if you leave one common food outside in the evening

Detailed summary

Slugs can be frustrating to deal with even in winter, but there is an easy way to keep them away from plants naturally without needing to use poison pellets or spend any money at all.

November might be a chilly month, but slugs will not be put off by the cold and will still target plants when they are at their most vulnerable, unless you know how to deter them. Slugs thrive in wet weather, even during winter, and will eat plants and flowers that still have their leaves, which can severely weaken them.

Plants without leaves can be more vulnerable to disease and frost damage at this time of year, and they will also take longer to grow as they need to recover once spring arrives. However, Mike McGroarty, a plant propagator and founder of Mike's Backyard Nursery, has shared an easy way to stop slugs from munching on your beloved greenery, and all you need are some orange peels. He said: “Slugs love citrus. Cut your oranges in half and eat them, then put the rinds in your garden near your vulnerable plants.”

It might sound strange to place a food that slugs love in the garden, but orange peels can be used to attract these pests away from your plants.

Slugs are drawn to citrus fruit peels because they contain plenty of moisture, creating a damp environment that they find appealing.

Orange peels also have a strong and very sweet scent that can attract slugs, particularly as the fruit starts to break down and decay.

Placing orange peels near vulnerable plants can encourage lots of slugs to gather in one small area, making it much easier to collect and dispose of them if you wish to.

Using orange peels is a simple way to make use of leftover food scraps to help manage slugs in your garden without having to rely on poisonous pellets.

All you need to do is save the peels from any oranges you eat, and once you have enough cut the peels into even smaller pieces.

Place the orange peel bits on the outside of the soil near any plants you wish to protect in the evening, as slugs start to come out at night.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Express. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.