Snails and Slugs scared by garlic!

[olena]

By Patricia Reaney

MANCHESTER (Reuters) - Dracula is not the only creature repelled by garlic -- snails and slugs are also put off by the pungent herb.
And now British scientists have produced a special garlic extract that may just be the answer to gardeners' prayers.
"It works well in repelling and killing snails," Dr Gordon Port, of Newcastle University, said on Friday.
Using garlic to kill snails and slugs is not new. Monks for example grew it in gardens to keep pests away. But Port and his colleagues have shown scientifically that an experimental garlic oil product is a killer.
"We've done scientific tests in the laboratory which have shown it to work," Port told the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
How it kills the slugs and snails isn't clear. As soon as the pests reached a barrier of the garlic oil they turned around and headed the other way.
"If they can't escape from it, it will kill them. It seems to cause an over-production of their mucus, so they effectively dry up," Port said.
Death is swift -- within a few hours, he added.
Although they haven't tested the effectiveness of using ordinary garlic or oil extracted from it on the pests, they said it may work but have no proof that it does.
Port believes oils in the herb are the active component but he does not know whether they are acidic. The odour is thought to be what repels the pests.
"We would perceive it as odour. My whole lab smells of garlic," he said.
But Port added it was unlikely that gardens or crops in which the garlic oil is used would end up reeking of it.
Snails and slugs, which enjoy feasting on lettuce and other leafy green plants and vegetables, cause millions of dollars worth of damage in countries with cool, temperate climates.
Garlic is not the only food or beverage known to kill them. Beer is also lethal.
"Beer does attract them, or at least it traps them. We have found in our tests that if you put a pot of beer and a pot of water out for slugs they will go to each with equal frequency," he said.
"But they never climb out of the pot of beer again."

 

[Snowwark]

"We would perceive it as odour. My whole lab smells of garlic,"

Many many many years ago, a group of us used to go out to a favouite pizza place some weekend evenings and gorge ourselves on pizza, and a few beers to wash it down. We used to ask for a shaker of garlic powder and sprinkle it (generously), on our pizza. We must of STUNK!! Between the garlic pizza and the beer, we were indeed very slug-like!

Thank you, Olena, interesting info!