By Francis Ndungu
A strawberry farm in Laikipia uses crushed eggshells to keep off snails and slugs that had been feasting on their export fruits.
Baraka’a production manager Raphael Osongo explained that they lost about half of their strawberry harvest before they began laying eggshell ‘traps’ for the slimy creatures. “We have gone from harvesting 49,200 strawberries or 1,640 punnets in a week from ⅛ an acre in 2023 to 72,000 strawberries or 2,400 punnets,” he said.
Slugs and snails love feeding on ripe strawberries. In cool, moist areas of Kenya slime trails on strawberries are a common site every morning. They make holes in them that make the fruits unmarketable. These holes also invite other pests such as beetles and earwigs to continue feeding on them. They also eat strawberry leaves, reducing the plants’ ability to make food and grow fruits. Because they usually attack at night or during early morning hours they are hard to control.
“Most people have no use for eggshells after eating their eggs because they do not know the value of what they consider trash,” Raphael said. The farm collects some eggshells and puts them in sacks instead of using them to make compost manure.
The idea of using eggshells to keep away the snails came to him when he realised that whenever they had poured kitchen waste with eggshells on the strawberry farm as organic manure the snails learned not to invade. “The eggshells attached themselves to their mucusy body which slowed down their crawling pace. This left them to bake in the heat dehydrated and starving them to death,” he explained.
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The agronomist walked through our reporter who visited the farm at Maili Sita how they first lay the eggshells in the sun to dry and become fragile so they can break easily when hit by a rod. “We strike them until they are broken down into small pieces and put them in a bucket. We then pour a thick layer of eggshells on the pathways in between strawberry beds. A heavy dose of eggshells is also poured laid on the edges of beds separating the strawberry plantation from other crop fields preventing snails and slugs from getting into the strawberry orchard,” he explained. The farm’s strawberries are planted on 100cm wide beds which have a 50cm pathway between them.
The farm started using eggshells as a method of controlling and repelling snails and slugs two years ago after consecutive infestations by the molluscs led to heavy losses for the farm.
“Initially I used pesticides to control the slugs and snails but it was all in vain. After spraying expensive pesticides, the pests would return in a matter of days. We were then advised to use sawdust to keep them away but unfortunately, that only increased their numbers instead of eradicating them,” the agronomist recounted.
Raphael concludes that the method of snail and slug control is cheap since eggshells are readily available and give the soil nourishment in the form of calcium from the eggshells. It also does not require skill to carry out.
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