I tried the viral tea towel slug control hack – here's why I won't be doing it again

Following the mild and moist weather throughout spring and summer, you will have probably noticed the surge in slugs. If you are a keen gardener like me, this will have you trialling every method to get rid of slugs that you can get your hands on. 

I recently tested out a copper scourer slug hack that I had spotted on social media, so when I spotted another hack for using tea towels to keep them at bay I went all in, but was seriously disappointed by the results. . 

The hack was originally shared by @thegrowdenwithglen and has racked up over 74,000 views on TikTok and lots of excited comments from like-minded gardeners desperate to save their plants from the slimy slug onslaught. 

In theory, this hack should work. The rough and coarse texture of the teatowel should be similar to that of eggshells and Diatomaceous earth – which are both foolproof ways to stop snails eating plants naturally – and prove too uncomfortable for the slugs to climb over. This should create a protective barrier around the plants. This is good in theory, and while it was dry, the hack appeared to work around my trial dahlia. 

However, as soon as we had a day of rain, the teatowel got wet and covered in soil –and then the snails came and commenced snacking on the evidently delicious leaves of my dahlia.

Another issue I found was that while it was easy to wrap the teatowel around the stem of a less leafy plant – like a tomato – for those that had more leaves – like dahlias or hostas – it was hard to surround the entire plant with teatowel strips and keep them in place. Occasionally they blew away when the wind picked up, or leaves flopped over the teatowel, rendering it pointless. 

The teatowel strips weren't particularly aesthetically pleasing either, and it looked as though I'd just left bits of fabric around the garden – not really in keeping with the cottage garden aesthetic that I'm aiming for. 

Perhaps the hack would work better in a greenhouse, as the teatowel won't get saturated with water and soil, or tied around the base of pots as part of a container garden, as it would be easier to secure using the weight of the pot. 

However, for now I'm keeping the teatowels in my kitchen and sticking to my preferred tried and tested method of using pot feet to stop slugs from eating my potted plants, and my copper scourers in my flowerbeds (until I find a new garden hack to try).

So if someone suggests the tea towel slug hack to you, avoid it. I tried it and it's just not worth the mess.