Does wool, often in the form of woolen pellets actually work in detering slugs and snails in your garden?
Well, the short answer is yes, wool does have a repellent effect against slugs and snails, we’re not sure why, but possibly the fibres irritate them. Below is a Table of roughly where it ranks in comparison to other Barriers that are available to Gardeners. And below that is a video i did where i carried out two seperate timelapse experiments to test it’s effectivness. In comparing wool to other barriers i found it had a “fair repellent effect”. Other studies however have found it not to help in protecting plants from slugs: “A recent RHS study in a garden-realistic scenario found no reduction in slug damage from barriers made of copper tape, bark mulch, eggshells, sharp grit, or wool pellets (Royal Horticultural Society, 2023).”
If you’d like to see my comprehensive 3 steps to slug free guide which is what led me to create the comparison chart above, click the link below.
If you don’t have time to watch the video, below are the two experiments I conducted to assess its ‘impassability.’ One experiment tested whether they had a strong preference to avoid the woolen pellet pathway, which would indicate a deterrent effect. The other experiment measured how long it would take them, if at all, to eat some lettuce leaves.
After these experiments i gave wool as a slug and snail deterrent an overall Rating: 18 – Fair (you can see more on my methodology in my 3 step guide ) And you can see below on what factors it scored well at and what factors it scored less well at.
Impassability:
Rating: Fair – 9
Environmental impact:
Rating: good – 4
Cost-Effectiveness:
Rating: Poor – 2
Maintenance Required:
Rating: fair – 3
Summary
So in summary Wool pellets are useful in the fight to keep your garden plants to yourself and share a bit less of them with slugs, however it would never be my first choice product to help and i’d only ever use as a second line of defence in combination with other barriers and of course controlling the enviroment to make it as uncomfortable for slugs as possible.