Beer traps

[magnuscanis]

I've been having some major slug problems with my herb garden recently so the other day I set up a couple of slug traps.

About an hour or so ago, I found a big fat slug taking a drink from one of them. Naturally I was quite excited, as I so far hadn't caught any slugs, but (probably thanks to the scientific training of my youth) I decided to wait and see how it got on in the trap rather than taking my knife to it straight away. I fairly quickly realised this might take a while so I came inside to get on with some other stuff rather than than watching avidly as the slug drank itself to death.

When I went back out a few minutes ago I didn't find, as I'd hoped, a dead or at least inebriated slug floating in the beer trap. Instead it was merrily making its way up towards my chives (I'm not sure if slugs like chives, but I suppose it had been thwarted by the bottomless plastic bottle I put over the basil after the slugs ate most of it last night). Of course, at this point I fetched my trusty garden knife and bisected it. I was also able to dispatch almost a dozen other slugs, great and small, that I found crawling round my garden.

I'm curious as to why the beer trap didn't work. I wonder if it's because I'm only using a standard (small) yoghurt pot for it and the diameter is maybe a bit small, so the slugs can drink their fill without falling in (although it wasn't filled very deep, so they have to lean down quite a way). Alternatively perhaps they just don't like the supermarket budget beer that I've been using. (I got a can for 25p from the bargain bin the other day, as it seemed a shame to waste good beer on the slugs).

If anyone can suggest what I'm doing wrong or how to make my beer traps more effective, I'd be very grateful.

- Magnus

[the.fee.fairy]

I've got traps with lids on them. The seem pretty effective.

Or...maybe its like with humans - the more bodily mass the slug has the more beer it takes to get it drunk enough to die!

[magnuscanis]

How do the lids work? Is it that there's a small opening so that the slug can get in but not out again?

The body mass thing sounds plausible. Perhaps I need to use stronger beer than the 2% cheapo stuff?

- Magnus

[the.fee.fairy]

its like a cup, with a lid type roofy thing. I'll take a pic when i get home. It looks like a little chimney sticking out of the earth, an the slugs get in, but they don't seem to get out!

[the.fee.fairy]

ooh, last year, i had 2l coke bottle cut in half with the tops inverted into the bottom halves, then buried and a good layer of beer in the bottom one.

The slugs get in and definitely can't get out!

[wulf]

Slugs also like shelter from the sun somewhere warm and moist. A covered beer trap may provide that lure. I also use grapefruit halves - once I have had the fruit for breakfast, the two halves get put, open side down, in the garden. For a week or so, they will harbour slugs (ready for, erm, bisecting) and then can go into the compost bin.

Maybe you could use half a grapefruit skin over your beer trap to create some kind of theme-slug-pub?

Wulf

[the.fee.fairy]

This is what my slug pubs look like:

On its own:



In place:

[magnuscanis]

Maybe you could use half a grapefruit skin over your beer trap to create some kind of theme-slug-pub?
Wulf

That's a good idea.

By the way, I tried your idea for grapefruit with honey and liked it very much, so I'll doubtless have some empty grapefruit skins soon.

- Magnus

[Bonniegirl]

Dreadful waste of beer ya know!

Beer is supposed to be a good way of attracting the slugs, and what a way to go eh?

Mind you its the ruddy singing late at night that gets me!

[the.fee.fairy]

Oh no, i don't use good beer - these are filled with Carling - best use for it

[MadTom]

I've been brewing a lot of my own beer lately and very pleasant and cheap its is too!.
The major benefit from it seems to be the lees though. Thats the yeasty residue left after draining the brew into bottles/barrel. I had enough left over to 1/2 fill a solid seed tray or whatever they're called.
The next morning this was almost full of dead (YES! YES! YES!) slugs! -
A big trap is a bit silly and inefficient but its fun to show people

If you brew from kits (about £9 for 40pts!) theres a lid on the top of the tin that makes a perfect beer trap. An off brew/leftovers can be used in the traps - I find getting the driptrays from the pub a bit too expensive and loose them on the way home!

I now pour the lees into a plastic bottle and empty/fill the traps that are around the place.

Must find out if I can feed the ducks the slugs.......

[smile_sunshine]

I use supermarket 'value' beer in mine and it seems to work ok.
Maybe the yoghurt pots are a bit small and the beers not deep enough for them to drown in?
I usually use cut off plastic drinking bottles or else the larger jam jars which both seem to work. Will try it with a lid tho sounds like a good idea.

[JR]

Great thread,

How do you make one out of old fizzy pop bottles?
Would it not get filled up with rain water.

Any other ideas on how to use old packaging & beer for slug pubs. Do snails like beer too?

[Annpan]

I have caught a snail in mine... and loads of beetles...yuk. Couldn't say that the beer atracted the snail or if it just happened upon the trap and fell in.

To make out of old pop bottle - cut out the middle third of the bottle, turn the top upside down and sit it inside the base.

Yes they do fill with rain. Either empty after it rains and replace the beer or make a tiny bus shelter for the trap to sit under. you could use some other plasic container with bits cut out, margaringe tub maybe??? though I don't know if this would desuade the slugs

I use baby yogurt tubs for mine, they are quite discusting to empty though, I tend to forget and the slugs ferment for a while

[colhut]

I tried traps this year, mostly ineffective, then the badger turned up and started throwing them around every night so I gave up on them. What I do is go out every night after the dew has settled and collect them up and pop them in the wheelie bin. I have not tried it yet, but there is a safe to use soil assosiation approved slug pellet, goes by the name of feramol (google it). Apparently it makes them stop eating, so they die, the stuff decomposes in the ground into a couple of harmless compounds (Iron and nitrogen I think) and is non toxic to pretty much any thing other than slugs. It won't even harm any birds that eat the slugs after they had eaten the pellets. The main reason I have not used them is they are blue, just like the nasty pellets and I don't want to have to explain to disbelieveing vistors all the time that these blue pellets are ok