Do Slugs Eat Tomato Plants? How to Protect Your Tomatoes From These Slimy Pests

As a tomato gardener, few things are more aggravating than walking out to your garden and finding holes chewed in your tomato leaves and fruits. The likely culprits? Slugs and snails These sneaky mollusks can do serious damage to tomato plants if left unchecked. Read on to learn more about the tomato-slug battle and how to defend your precious tomatoes against these slimy leaf eaters

Slugs and Snails Love Tomatoes

Garden slugs and snails are attracted to tomato plants and can chew irregular holes with smooth edges in leaves, stems, and fruits The most active at night or on overcast, rainy days, they leave behind telltale silvery slime trails on leaves and ground around your plants

These gastropods use rasping radulas inside their mouths to scrape away at plant tissues, injecting digestive enzymes as they go to break down plant cells. They seem to be especially fond of tomato plants.

Young seedlings are very vulnerable to slug and snail feeding damage. Entire leaves can be skeletonized or plants completely chewed through at the soil line. Transplants sometimes fail to get established because of heavy grazing by slugs.

On mature tomato plants, slugs and snails target fruits touching the ground or accessible on low branches Feeding injury on green tomatoes appears as holes bored into the side of the fruit. If tomatoes are attacked when red ripe, you’ll find them hollowed out, leaving just the skin behind

Left uncontrolled, slugs and snails can make raising tomatoes an exercise in futility! Luckily there are ways to fight back against these slimy pests.

Exclude Slugs and Snails from Your Tomato Patch

Here are some tactics to physically keep slugs and snails away from your tomatoes:

• Install copper barriers – Strips of copper foil or tape around beds block slugs and snails, which recoil when they contact copper.

• Use diatomaceous earth – Sprinkle this abrasive, desiccant dust on the soil to scratch and dehydrate slugs. Reapply after rain.

• Set out beer traps – Saucers or jars sunk into the ground and filled with cheap beer will attract and drown slugs and snails.

• Handpick at night – Go out after dark with a flashlight and pick any slugs and snails off plants and drop into soapy water.

• Keep garden tidy – Eliminate piles of debris, boards, or overgrown areas around the garden that provide shelter for slugs and snails during the day.

Tomatillo Slug Control with Organic Slug Bait

When slug and snail populations are high, baits may be needed in addition to exclusion tactics:

• Iron phosphate slug baits – Products like Sluggo and Escar-Go are safe for pets and wildlife yet lethal to mollusks. Sprinkle around susceptible plants.

• Diatomaceous earth – As mentioned above, spread of DE on soil where slugs travel kills through abrasion and desiccation.

• Coffee grounds – Coarse, dry grounds sprinkled around plants deter slugs and snails. The caffeine and abrasive texture bother them.

Always scatter baits near affected plants but not directly on them. Apply in evening when slugs are active. Reapply after rain or heavy watering. Combine with exclusion tactics for most effective slug control.

Encourage Slug Predators in Your Tomato Patch

Enlisting natural predators to hunt slugs and snails around your tomato plants is another organic control strategy:

• Attract birds – Species like ducks, chickens, and songbirds will eat significant numbers of slugs.

• Welcome garter snakes – Harmless snake species prey on slugs and take up residence in gardens.

• Build beetle banks – Ground beetles devour slug eggs and young slugs. Leaf litter piles provide habitat for them to overwinter.

• Buy parasitic nematodes – Applied to soil, these worms seek out slug eggs and juveniles and infect them with bacteria.

• Set out slug pubs – Half-buried tubes or pieces of tile give slug predators daytime refuge. Check inside for slugs!

A biodiverse garden welcomes many slug predators to do their work. Avoid pesticides that would kill beneficial slug hunters.

Protect Tomato Plants with Preventive Care

Good garden sanitation and plant care helps reduce slug damage:

• Eliminate weeds – Don’t give slugs and snails places to hide and breed during the day. Weed regularly.

• Water carefully – Avoid wetting foliage excessively. Water in morning so plants dry out by evening.

• Use drip irrigation – Drippers concentrate water at plant bases instead of between rows where slugs travel.

• Mulch plants -Organic mulches like wood chips or pine straw create barriers to slug travel.

• Check seedlings – Inspect the soil surface and undersides of leaves on young transplants daily. Hand pick any slugs present.

• Remove infested plants – Pull out and destroy any slug damaged transplants so they don’t spread the pests.

With constant vigilance and a multi-pronged defense strategy, you can successfully grow tomatoes in spite of destructive slugs and snails. Don’t surrender your garden to these slimy marauders!