Divisi
Slugs and snails
· Mollusk
Photo: Pinky sl · CC BY-SA 3.0
Slugs and snails are soft-bodied molluscs — snails carry a coiled shell on their back, slugs go bare — that shelter by day in damp soil, debris and thick mulch and slide out to feed at night and after rain. They rasp plant tissue with a rough, file-like tongue (called a radula), leaving smooth-edged holes and tell-tale silvery slime trails. They hit hardest on young, tender seedlings and on low, leafy or ground-touching crops — cabbage, lettuce, beans, tomato, strawberry and other brassicas — and can graze a fresh stand to the ground in just a few damp nights.
Bruce Marlin · CC BY-SA 3.0 
Grendelkhan · CC BY-SA 4.0
Why it matters
On young cabbage, lettuce, beans, tomato, strawberry and other brassicas, slugs and snails can strip up to 40% of your crop — and they do it fastest at the seedling stage, where a single night's grazing can cut a young plant clean off at the ground, and it never grows back. They feed hidden in the dark and melt away into wet soil and mulch by day, so by the time you notice the gaps the culprits are already gone. Once your plot stays damp and sheltered they breed and gather there night after night, so the only lasting fix is to change those wet, shady conditions — picking off a few or scattering a little bait never ends it on its own.
When to act
Seedlings or transplants being grazed and slime trails visible in the morning; act before stands are thinned.
This guidance is general, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. Thresholds and timing shift with your crop, your variety and the season.
In much of the region a spray is simply called mushonga — medicine. But a chemical group you cannot name is one you cannot rotate, and a product you did not write down has no pre-harvest interval you can observe. Mushonga, and other farming words →
The full slugs and snails field guide
- Identify it
- Scout for it
- Control it
12 field-guide sections in the app
The full guide to slugs and snails — every symptom to check, how and when to walk your field looking for it, and the controls that actually work, ranked. Built into your crop plan, so you are told to look before it costs you a harvest.
Crops it affects
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify slugs and snails?
The damage shows first: look for smooth-edged holes eaten right out of the middle and edges of leaves, tender seedlings grazed down to a stump or cut clean off at the ground, and shallow gouges chewed into low-hanging fruit like tomato and strawberry. The give-away is the silvery, dried slime trail — shiny, ribbon-like streaks on leaves, stems and soil that catch the light in the early morning.
When should I take action against slugs and snails?
Seedlings or transplants being grazed and slime trails visible in the morning; act before stands are thinned.
How do I control slugs and snails?
Prevent first — dry them out and open up the plot: clear away loose debris, weeds and thick mulch from around young plants, keep the beds weeded, and improve drainage so the surface isn't damp all night. Water in the morning, not the evening, so the topsoil dries before dark when molluscs move. Wherever you can, plant out hardened transplants (seedlings toughened up outdoors first) instead of sowing straight into cold, wet soil, so the crop races past the tender seedling stage that molluscs love. Drying out and clearing the plot is your strongest, most lasting tool — lean on it before anything else.
Which crops does slugs and snails affect?
Among the crops covered here: Cabbage, Lettuce, Tomato.
Catch it before it costs you a harvest
Divisi builds scouting into your crop plan — it tells you when to walk your field, what to look for at that stage, and what to do when you find it. Free for farmers, works offline.
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