Forget Coffee Grounds And Salt — Here's A Better Natural Way To Banish Snails

If you're cursing at the tiny bite marks in the fruits and veggies in your garden, it's time to find a solution to your snail problem. These gastropods are notorious for munching on plants and destroying gardens, but keeping them away is difficult. While salt and coffee grounds are sometimes recommended, there's a more effective option that won't affect your soil. Fruit rinds and peels are surprisingly wonderful for trapping snails as well as slugs, making these kitchen scraps a natural alternative for managing garden pests. Whether you have melon rinds or citrus peels, saving them is a better way to prevent snails from wreaking havoc on your plants. Online, university extensions and horticulturalists praise natural fruit traps as an effective way to control snails.

Coffee grounds are said to deter snails due to the caffeine, but may not be very effective. On the other hand, salt will kill the pests, but could negatively affect soil fertility for your plants. Instead, fruit peels are another chemical-free option to keep your gardening practices eco-friendly. Rather than going after the produce growing on your plants, snails will track down and hang out under your fruit peel traps. Besides the delicious fruit, the upside-down shape of the rind or peel provides a dark, damp spot for the mollusks to hide. This method won't deter snails from your garden, but it will allow you to easily find and remove several of them at once. Once trapped, you can choose to release or kill them.

If you've had ongoing issues with snails, you'll want to start using this genius orange peel hack in your garden. Simply place fruit rinds or peels face down on the ground. Set your trap in a shaded, somewhat damp spot. Since snails are nocturnal, leave the fruit scraps out overnight and flip them over to check for pests in the morning. 

Grapefruit, lemon, lime, and citrus peels in general can be upgraded to garden snail traps. Honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, and other melon rinds are also extremely effective for luring and trapping these creatures. With citrus peels, cutting the fruit in half and spooning out the flesh leaves you with a neat dome for your snail trap. A half or a quarter of a melon rind will both create an appealing snail shelter. The same rind may last more than one night, so consider picking the snails off and reusing your fruit scraps.

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To make your rinds more accessible, cut an opening to create a doorway into the trap. Placing your rinds on a piece of cardboard or inside a container will make it easier to pick up the rotting fruit once it's full of snails. To keep snails and slugs away, put the fruit and pests inside a plastic bag, tie it shut, and throw it away. If you wish to release them, take the garden pests to the edge of your property, away from your plants.