Plant Problem Diagnosis Key / Pests
Pest
Slugs and snails
Gastropoda
Mollusks that feed at night and on wet days, rasping irregular holes in leaves, seedlings and soft fruit.
Signs
- Ragged holes anywhere on the leaf, and seedlings eaten to stubs.
- Silvery slime trails on leaves, mulch and pots.
- Slugs under boards, pots and mulch in the morning, or out feeding after dark.
What favors it
Wet weather, evening watering, mulch and boards that keep them damp by day.
Prevention
- Water in the morning so the surface dries by night.
- Remove boards, debris and thick mulch near seedlings.
- Wide copper barriers around raised beds; narrow strips do not work.
Often confused with
Sources
- Slugs in home gardensUniversity of Minnesota Extension
- Slugs and Snails - VegetablesUniversity of Maryland Extension
- Snails & Slugs in the Home GardenClemson Cooperative Extension (HGIC)
Treatment by crop
Cultural, biological and chemical options in the order to use them, and notes written for each crop.
Identification is free. Treatment is on the Home and Pro plans.
Questions in the key that lead here
- Look the plant over, leaf undersides included. Are insects, mites, slugs, eggs, webbing or droppings on it?
Yes, something living or its traces - What is on the plant?
Something chewing - What is doing the chewing?
Slugs or snails, or slime trails
Not a match? Start the key or describe what you see.
More photos
More from university Extension: search Extension pages on slugs and snails, or find a plant diagnostic lab through your state's Extension.
Other pests
- Aphids
- Bagworms
- Bark beetles of pine and spruce
- Broad mites and cyclamen mites
- Caterpillars
- Cicada and twig-cutting damage
- Colorado potato beetle
- Cucumber beetles
- Cutworms
- Elm leaf beetle
- Emerald ash borer
- Flea beetles
- Fungus gnats
- Galls on leaves and twigs
- Hemlock woolly adelgid
- Japanese beetles
- Lace bugs
- Leafminers
- Mealybugs
- Pine sawflies
- Root aphids
- Root-knot nematodes
- Russet mites
- Sapsucker damage
- Scale insects
- Shore flies
- Spider mites
- Spongy moth (gypsy moth)
- Spotted lanternfly
- Squash bugs and stink bugs
- Squash vine borer
- Tent caterpillars and fall webworm
- Thrips
- Whiteflies
- Wood borers