Slugs and snails can be a real problem for gardeners, but there are natural slug control methods using common kitchen scraps to keep them away from your vegetables and strawberries

Growing your own vegetables can be incredibly rewarding, with even a small plot capable of producing a respectable haul for the dinner table. Popular choices that are generally easy to grow include salad leaves and greens, courgettes, peas and strawberries — but the catch is that slugs are equally fond of them.

In just a matter of hours, or overnight, slugs and snails can strip thriving young plants down to bare stems, leaving your vegetables badly damaged and often beyond saving. These unwelcome garden invaders will also make short work of a crop of ripe strawberries before you ever get the chance to pick them yourself.

Although slugs serve an important purpose in the ecosystem — acting as a food source for birds and other wildlife — outdoor spaces can quickly become overrun with these gastropod pests, causing misery for gardeners.

Experts caution that slug pellets, including organic ones, can be harmful to the wildlife in your garden, but help may be closer than you think — right in your kitchen bin, in fact.

Eggshells have been found to be effective at keeping slugs away from your garden crops.

It's a well-established trick, with gardeners washing and crushing the shells before scattering them around the base of vulnerable plants.

The eggshell method works by preventing slugs from reaching the fruit and foliage of the plant. Some gardeners who have tried this method have left the eggshells in halves — creating a sizeable sharp-edged barrier around the plant, which has proved to be effective.

Slugs are reluctant to crawl over the jagged edges — and that's precisely why it works as a deterrent. However, after heavy rainfall, the eggshell technique can become less dependable as the shells turn slippery.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has highlighted another natural approach that may also prove successful in keeping slugs away from your vegetables.

On their website, RHS reported: "Traps, such as scooped-out half orange, grapefruit, or melon skins, can be laid out cut side down or jars part-filled with beer and sunk into the soil near vulnerable plants.

"Check and empty these regularly, preferably every morning."

These natural traps will draw the molluscs away from your edible crops, allowing salad leaves, vegetables and strawberries to thrive without being eaten.

There is also a biological control method available that poses absolutely no risk to other wildlife in your garden or outdoor space.

'Nemaslug' is an organic solution made up of microscopic worms that can be watered directly into the soil.

These worms, known as nematodes, burrow into the slugs' bodies and infect the slimy gastropods with a bacteria that brings about a fatal disease.