Slugs and Beer

Ian M.

New member
Yep, that's not a typographical error - I did, indeed, say slugs and beer in the same title!!

Boy oh boy!! You learn something new just about every day but this was a real awakening for me!! I got a nice letter yesterday from an elderly aunt of mine who lives in Florida and is an avid gardener. She went on to tell me that she's had a serious problem with slugs and things charging into her broccoli beds and destroying her crop until she read somewhere that slugs and caterpillars love beer. She now puts shallow pie tins of beer throughout her garden beds and during the nights the slugs and their pals crawl into those pans of beer and drown in them. Goodbye slugs!! A nifty idea and a horrible waste of perfectly good beer but if it does the trick, why not? Anyone else ever heard about this method before? After reading that letter, I may never look at a bottle of beer quite the same way again.................

Ian M. :yuk:
 

Mountain man

Entree Cook
Gold Site Supporter
It works well. Since I quit drinking we use ground up egg shells in the soil around the plant. The little meat pie size tins are what we used.
 

Leni

New member
It works very well and better than using a poison. At least the snails and slugs die happy. The egg shells also work because they are sharp. Snails and slugs will not slide over a sharp object. For the same reason they will not cross diatom earth either. That's what goes into a pool filter. Diatoms are tiny sharp shells that will cut the heck out of them.
 
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Saliha

Well-known member
Yes it works well. Here is one idea how to make a trap for them (as they also prefer sheltered and shaded places):

vegetable-patch-management---sugar-trap-pot.gif


And soon:

slug%20beer%20harrowsmith.jpg


Have a (last) party!
 

Saliha

Well-known member
Some more ideas:

The slug... your adversary

Slugs may be a very serious problem to you if you live in the Northwest or other moisture laden areas of the country. A single lawn prawn can successfully remove an entire row of seedlings from your garden in no time at all. He can turn a perfect plant into swiss cheese over night and return to the safety of his hideaway, leaving you to wonder what happened...... As slugs wander about, doing their evil little slug deeds, they leave behind them a trail of slime which amounts to nothing less than a road sign for themselves and every other slug to follow to the grand feast. To make the situation even worse, slugs are hermaphrodites, they all have male and female reproductive systems. Yes, they can mate with themselves, and in the privacy of their own abode, each slug will produce two to three dozen eggs several times a year. The egg clusters look like little piles of whitish jelly BB sized balls. They will hatch in anywhere from 10 days to three weeks or longer, and these sluglingss can mature to adulthood in as little as six weeks. Destroy the eggs... wherever you find them.
Slugs may live for several years, getting larger with proportionately larger appetites each year. Now, do you really want to go out to your garden some morning and find an eighteen inch Banana Slug waiting for you?


The battles and the war

Although you may never win the war against snails and slugs entirely, you owe it to your plants to fight them with every weapon at your disposal. You can control slug populations with several different methods. With each battle which you win, you have prevented hundreds of new slugs from hatching.

The battlefield

As with any battle plan, it is to your advantage to be able to set the field. Set your field by cleaning your garden, and eliminating the places where the slugs hide, sleep, and reproduce.


  • Pulling the weeds from your garden is something you need to do anyway. As you pull each weed, you remove a potential slug outpost.
    [*]
    Keep all decaying matter cleaned out of your garden beds. While leaves make a good mulch, once they begin to compost they become food and shelter for slugs and snails.
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    Prune the branches of any shrubs which are laying on the ground. Keep the old leaves and such cleaned out. By doing this you will have destroyed yet another slug haven!
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    Cultivate your soil regularly to keep the dirt clods broken up, and unearth any slugs which may have burrowed under the surface.
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    The shaded areas beneath decks can be a slug arena: keep them weed and litter free.
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    Just about anything can become a slug home. Boards, rocks, pots and other gizmos should be kept out of the garden.
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    Keep the lawn edges trimmed. Slugs will congregate under the umbrella of unkept grass.
The weapons

For the sake of the environment, it is better to make an effort to control slugs and snails without using chemicals and poisons before you resort to chemical warfare.

Hand to hand combat


  • Keep slug pokers stuck around the garden at random. Meet your enemy, one on one... Your weapon is at hand, impale them!
    [*]
    Fill a small bowl with stale beer. Put it in the areas where the slugs are active. Stale beer attracts the slugs and they drown. You may also use grape juice or a tea made from yeast, honey and water.
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    An early morning stroll around the garden, salt shaker in hand will often result in many casualties for the bad guys.
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    Destroy any and ALL slug eggs you find!
    [*]
    Bait and destroy tactics work. Set a pile of slightly dampened dry dog food in an area frequented by slugs. In the morning and evening visit the feeding station a few times.... slug poker in hand!
Battle lines


  • Cedar bark or gravel chips spread around your plant will irritate and dehydrate slugs.
    [*]
    The sharp edges of crushed eggshells around the plants will cut and kill slugs. The calcium in the eggshells is a good soil amendment anyway!
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    Sprinkle a line of lime around your plants. (Obviously this won't work around plants requiring a more acidic soil)
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    Certain herbs (Rosemary, lemon balm,wormwood, mints, tansy, oak leaves, needles from conifers and seaweed will repel slugs. However using a mulch of these plants will only turn thhe slugs away, in search of other food sources.
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    Oat bran will kill slugs when they eat it... sprinkle some around.
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    Enlist allies..... snakes, ducks, geese, toads, and Rhode Island Reds would enjoy helping you out as they dine on your slugs.
Chemical warfare

Probably the most popular, most effective, and easiest method of controlling slugs is by using commercial slug bait products. These may be purchased in the form of meal, pellets, powder, or liquid. The primary concern of using chemical baits and poisons is the possibility of poisoning small critters, creatures and even small children. Always follow the instructions to the letter, and go the extra steps necessary to insure that the poisons are inaccessible to anything but slugs and snails.


  • Make traps to collect slugs out of plastic pop bottles. Cut the bottle in half and then invert the top part of the bottle into the bottom part to create a no escape entryway. The slug bait can be placed inside the bottle and will draw the slugs in where they will die and await disposal.
  • bottletrap1.JPG
    bottletrap3.JPG

    [*]
    Cut a one inch 'V' notch in the rim of a cool whip bowl. Invert the bowl in the garden over the slug bait, and place a rock on top of it to keep it secure.
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    Commercial, disposable slug traps may be purchased at many garden centers. Quite a bit more expensive, but they work!
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    At the very least, cover the bait with a weighted piece of wood or an old shingle to prevent access to the poison. The slugs will still find it, consume it, and die.
Surprise tactics

Try as you might, the war against slugs will go on as long as there are gardens. You will never win, but you can keep them under control. Remember that for every slug you destroy, you are preventing countless generations of that slug's offspring


http://www.thegardenhelper.com/slugs.html
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
Diatomaceous earth sold for swimming pool filtering is of a different processing and does not have the sharp edges required to slice&dice the slug feet.

look for agricultural grade DE. reapply after every rain and/or watering (bummer....)

egg shells in my experience are of very limited value.

the best is - beer in a container set flush with the ground - clean out _daily_ until the traps don't accumulate more....
 

Ian M.

New member
Chowderman - I was speaking with my Florida Aunt last night and she allowed as how she doesn't use eggshells as a means of killing the slugs at all but rather as a baracade to protect her young seedlings and shoots. She places the tender shoots and seedlings inside either the cardboard center of toilet paper rolls or else uses plastic yogurt containers as a "collar" around the young plants to protect them (and, as she said, she gets to enjoy the contents of the yogurt containers before she makes plant protectors out of them) and the eggshell barriers keep the slugs and snails from crawling over the sharp edges to get to the plants beyond. Sounds like a lot of work, to me, but does make sense, as well.

Ian :)
 
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