A gardener is showing people how to control an abundance of slugs without using any chemicals.
The Instagram Reel was posted by Gary Pilarchik (@therustedgarden), who has 112,000 followers and a bio saying he will "teach you how to grow food & tend a garden."
"Easy build and crazy good results," Pilarchik wrote in the video's description.
The scoop
The Reel begins with the narrator in a garden, removing a clay pot and exposing another smaller one that had been beneath.
The smaller pot is covered with slugs.
"You want to use two pots because the inside is filled with soil," he says, before putting the larger pot back over the smaller one covered in slugs.
He goes on to explain how "the slugs are going to enter through the hole" of the pot, which should be filled halfway with soil and soaked down before the second pot is placed on top.
"That's how you'll catch your snails and slugs," he finishes.
How it's helping
Simple hacks like this, which serve as a natural alternative to control pests, are great because they empower us to not rely on pesticides, which are toxic, can lead to a host of environmental problems, and can also get expensive in the long run.
For one, traditional pesticides, which can be very harmful to pets, often do not even reach the intended pest.
Also, many insect-killing solutions come in plastic containers. Americans throw out about 40 million tons of plastic each year, and only about 5% of that gets recycled.
What everyone's saying
Followers had plenty of questions and comments.
"Isn't that leopard snail? Good guys that help with composting. They only eat dead material and other snail eggs," one person wrote.
Another person responded with, "That's just what I was going to say. Those are the good guys, they're predators that eat the eggs of other slugs. You want those in your garden to keep the other slugs in check."
This person provided some additional, and even more creative, advice by suggesting gardeners "try filling a small dish with beer and leave it next to your plants. It's literally a snail magnet and you can collect them the next morning."
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