The Secret To Keeping Slugs Off Your Plants Is In Your Kitchen

If you're dealing with slugs in your garden, aluminum foil is a simple and effective kitchen item that can save your plants. All you need to do is fold it around your plants' stems and it will act as a physical barrier against crawling pests — they won't want to cross the foil. The shininess of aluminum foil can also scare away certain small animals as they see it as something unfamiliar and therefore a potential threat.

Another way it helps deter slugs is by reflecting light and warmth. When you wrap aluminum foil around the base of plants or create stakes covered in foil, it can reflect sunlight and heat back onto the plant. This deters slugs because they thrive in darkness and can deter other animals and pests as well. Fastening strips of aluminum foil to fruit trees, for example, keeps birds from destroying them because they don't like the light. Another perk of the reflected light is that it creates warmth for your plants during the night.

You can use aluminum foil to protect your plants from slugs in various ways. If you're attaching the foil to the plant, cut strips that are wide and long enough to wrap around its stems. To create a barrier to prevent slugs from accessing your plants, place large strips to cover the ground around them. This also creates that reflective surface around them. If you need to hang strips, cut the foil into small pieces and hang them on stakes or tree branches around the whole garden or a specific plant. 

Some other pest control methods are to mix small pieces of foil into your mulch and wrap pieces around young tree trunks. You can also wrap foil around seed starters or use it to line flower pots and seedling boxes to keep them warm. If you're using used aluminum foil, wash it properly first to ensure it doesn't have any food particles.