Natural Snail Repellent.

We have snails in our new vegetable garden!
I had beautiful flourishing green bean leaves, and then suddenly, overnight, they were all eaten.
It was devastating.

I was told by many to put snail pellets down, but do they even know me..? Haha! I will look for a natural alternative, and then another, and then another before I will even go down a toxic pathway.

1. We have dogs that come in and hang out in the vegetable garden when we are in there. I don’t want them eating or even being near snail pellets!
2. My toddler is my garden helper and I especially don’t want him near them!
3. They’re toxic! Haha.

I took to the beloved Pinterest and looked up natural ways to repel pests, specifically snails and slugs. I found in a few articles that crushed up egg shells repel snails.
Then I turned to my essential oils. I asked in my oil community if anybody had any advice or tried and tested oil use for snails and of course (because they are all amazing) someone had some advice for me!

It is said that Cedarwood essential oil and Patchouli essential oil work to repel snails.

So, I crushed up some egg shells in a ceramic bowl and added 4 drops of Cedarwood and 4 drops of Patchouli oil and mixed them all together and took them to my garden.

I sprinkled the egg shells on top of the soil in the pot where the snails were eating my green bean leaves, and left them until the sun went down and the snails came looking for their leaves!

I also soaked some cardboard toilet paper roll with the essential oils and put it in the other pots that they haven’t been eating, just to prevent the snails searching for the other plants when they can’t eat the leaves of the beans.

I went outside when the sun was down and it was cold, and I found the snails on the hunt. There were no snails on the green beans pot, but there were a few on the wall nearby and the pathway.

I kept checking and the snails were not anywhere near the bean leaves at all. It was incredible. Usually, pre-oil and egg shells, there would be 3 or 4 slugs in the pot and in the soil, but tonight, after 4 checks, there were none. Not even on the pot. Crazy!

So, my take on essential oils and egg shells as Snail repellant; Huge thumbs up. I would definitely say that it has worked, and I’m so happy.
Maybe we will have some yummy green beans for my toddler to snack on soon – another household pest we have. Haha…kidding, he’s beautiful!

Thankyou for reading and I truly hope this helps you fight your snail problem, naturally!

If you are looking for more low tox recipes to change up your household toxic intake, I have many more recipes and tips on my blog so make sure to check them out and leave some love in the comments.

If you want to purchase the essential oils I used in my garden, you can find them here:

Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think.
love, Hayley xo