Fill the container with cheap beer the sweeter the better and the slugs will enter into a blissful demise. Large holes may be needed to accommodate snails. You must be logged in to post a comment. This site may contain content including images and articles as well as advice, opinions and statements presented by third parties. Sun Gro does not review these materials for accuracy or reliability and does not endorse the advice, opinions, or statements that may be contained in them.
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A dozen or so pennies stuck into the soil around a seedling can form a border — a stripped electrical cable is even better. Cut the top and the bottom of a plastic bottle. Wrap the stripped cable a few times around it with one or two loops in it, fasten it to the bottle with duct tape through the loops and flatten the copper loops to the plastic. If you use sticks to support the plant, wrap copper around the sticks too. Make sure none of the leaves touch the ground or any weeds touch the plant.
Egg shells: The sharp edges of eggshells help as a deterrent, but only when they are clean and dry. When peeling an egg, try to remove the inner membrane and rinse if needed. Be aware that rain quickly makes the eggshells lose their effectiveness. Salt: Pouring salt around your veg will keep the slugs away indeed, but unless your plants like maritime conditions they will die too! Slug pellets: Most are not organic and will kill the predators too.
Even the organic ones are not wise to use: when the slugs die, the predators leave to find food elsewhere — leaving you dependent on the pellets. Ludwig Appeltans is a permaculture designer and teacher. This article originally appeared on permaculture. Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? The Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable living.
All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Five steps for gardeners to take control of slugs the natural way. The classic beer trap is based on the idea that the baited slugs fall into the beer after drinking the intoxicating liquid and then drown in it.
To attract the snails, small containers filled with beer are placed close to beds and plants which are under threat. It is also possible to buy special beer traps, which come with a rain cover. This prevents the beer being watered down or overflowing when it rains. The traps are buried in the ground, preventing them from tipping over.
The edge of the trap should always protrude at least 2 inches 5 centimeters above ground level. These insects are natural predators of slugs and snails and are important allies in effectively controlling slugs and snails. More information here: Resettlement of natural slug predators. Sometimes it is recommended to use beer traps in combination with snail fences. Once a snail fence is set up, all the slugs and snails within the fenced-off area must be regularly collected and removed.
If the area is large, this can be difficult and take a while, because some slugs might also be hiding underground. However, instead of using beer traps, it is better to use live slug traps.
Different plastic models can be bought, which all look more or less the same. But there are also some special models. As mentioned, however, I recommend other methods to catch slugs and snails, since beer traps have few benefits and numerous disadvantages which cause considerable problems.
And of course, your neighbors will also be happy, since you are luring the slugs out of their garden into yours! One disadvantage is that slugs and snails will be attracted into the garden by the smell of the beer from far away. Since not all slugs die in the traps, in the end, there might be more pests in the garden than before. It is believed that only about one-third of the slugs actually fall into the traps and drown in them.
For hedgehogs , the traps are a feast, but if they eat dead slugs saturated with beer, they can poison themselves with alcohol.
Beer traps are clearly not an effective or sustainable solution for preventing slugs and snails invading your garden. In fact, they can aggravate the situation even more, since many slugs are attracted from far away by the smell of yeast.
All attractants are a double-edged sword. All these methods lead to the inevitable consequence that more slugs and snails are attracted into the garden. Therefore, you are ultimately shooting yourself in the salad if you try to use slug baits or beer traps to kill slugs and snails. Have you looked at the Slug-X trap? Claimed to be effective by a reputable news paper catching slugs in one night! It definitely does work if you have two copper wires and a 9v battery.
The very few brave souls who repeatedly try to find a way to my plants will usually fall to the ground after three or four electric shocks. Each of my raised beds is protected by two electrified copper strips at the top and needs only one battery per year. In the spring, when changing batteries, I also dose the beds with predatory nematodes to catch any of the little bleeders that made it into the bed when the battery was low in the winter.
By the way — the slug nematodes are not available in North America, because they are not native here. They are very effective, particularly when coupled with a barrier method. This is amazing! I was disappointed in the lack of slugs caught in my test beer trap, but it never occurred to me that they were drinking and leaving. Press here to subscribe. Garden Myths - Learn the truth about gardening.
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