7 Plants That Deter Slugs

Despite what you may think, slugs will not eat every plant in existence. In fact, there are some plants that have been found to actually repel these pests. Below we’ll have a look at several different plants that deter slugs:

There are a number of plants that deter slugs and it tends to come down to smell or texture. Plants that deter slugs include salvias, lavender, rosemary and geraniums.

Why Do Certain Plants Deter Slugs?

For example, they are deterred by the smell of lavender but the texture of geraniums. Now, let’s have a look at which plants deter slugs and which of these two categories they fall into. 

Which Plants Deter Slugs Because of Smell?

Below we are going to look at four different plants which repel slugs because of their taste and their smell. 

Salvias

Salvias are very beautiful plants that look nice when bordering an area in your garden. A great benefit to using these plants to border areas is that their strong smell will keep slugs away from this area and the other plants that may reside in the salvia borders.

This plant is actually a herb, but it has lovely purple flowers that attract bees and look similar to lavender.

Lavender

As well as repelling slugs, this plant will repel other pests like squirrels, and it will help to attract useful wildlife into your garden, such as butterflies. 

Astrantia

If you only want some dainty and delicate-looking flowers, then Astrantia is perfect for you. They produce small, white flowers, but they also produce a smell that greatly repels slugs.

You can grow these plants in pots so they can be easily moved to repel slugs from targeted areas. 

Rosemary

Another herb on this list, rosemary, is incredibly good for deterring slugs and is also a great plant to have in your garden. Sometimes, slugs can get into your house, but having rosemary growing on your windowsill is sure to keep them away from your home.

As well as this, you can grow it outside if you think that your garden needs more protection than inside your home.

Some other good reasons to grow this plant include the fact that it is quite hardy and easy to care for, and it also makes for a great addition to many home-cooked meals. 

Which Plants Deter Slugs Because of Texture

The texture is the other major component that will keep a slug away from your plant. Below are three different examples of plants that you can grow which will keep slugs at bay because of their unique textures. 

Succulents

Succulents come in wide varieties, and almost all of them are great for keeping slugs away. In the case of all of them, this is because of their textures. Some are waxy and therefore slippery, whilst others are spiky and therefore painful.

Either way, these different types of succulents all make for difficult terrain for slugs to cross. You can grow them inside or outside in the shade, and they are very low maintenance plants.

One good way of utilising these plants is by planting small succulents in pots with frequently disturbed plants. The surrounding succulents will mean that the slugs cannot travel to the plant they seek, and they will eventually give up. 

Geraniums

Geraniums quite often lie close to the ground in flower beds which is a great way of keeping slugs away from the surrounding plants. This is because geraniums have hairy stems, which slugs do not like to eat, nor do they like to travel across.

Moving over the hairy stems of geraniums is very uncomfortable for slugs, so they will avoid them at all costs.

Again, this is why they work so well in flower beds with other plants because the slugs will not bother to travel over the geraniums to make it to the other plants that they can feed on. 

Day Lily Hemerocallis

Otherwise known as daylilies, these beautiful plants come in striking shades of oranges, reds and yellows. Sadly, these miniature lilies will only actually bloom for one day.

However, you should not let this put you off growing them. Whilst they only bloom for a very short time period, they are very beautiful when they flower.

As well as this, they have the added benefit that we have been discussing, which is that they can deter slugs from coming into your garden or close to your other plants.

This is because, like with geraniums, they have fuzzy stems, which slugs find uncomfortable. They also find it very difficult to grip onto this texture, so they couldn’t even climb up the stalk to eat the plant if they wanted to. 

Summary

To summarise, we have discussed seven different types of plants that can work to deter slugs. These are either repellent to slugs because of their smell and taste or because of their texture.

Plants that repel slugs because of their smell or taste include lavender, rosemary, Astrantia and salvias. Whilst the plants that work to deter slugs because of their textures include, a variety of succulents, geraniums and daylilies.

Many of these plants have other added benefits that include looking beautiful in your garden and also attracting beneficial insects, including bees and butterflies.