This is an update to my slug-killing post from last year. During that time I’ve tried copper tape, garlic spray, attracting more birds, broken eggshells, and a host of other organic remedies. Just last week I saw this video on Paul Wheaton’s Permies site showing a large slug just cruising over the copper tape. I wish I had seen that before I spent the money.
So far, nothing works like BEER. I’ve heard wise people say, “You don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck shortage.” While this may be true, we’re not currently in a position to have ducks or chickens, so I have to find the next best thing.
Here are my three recommendations for slug reduction.
1. Sprinkling table salt on the patio and concrete near “high slug traffic” areas. Ok, a lot of people give me a hard time about this but I don’t know why. I just use a little bit of salt, and the grass near the sidewalk seems to be fine. I sprinkle a bit of salt around the base of pots that slugs are getting into, and the next morning I can see their little trail. Sometimes it just kills them, but often, like with very large snails, I can just follow the trail back to where they’re hiding.
2. Visual inspection of hiding spots. Slugs and snails like shady moist areas to spend the day time in. This last weekend I found fifty, yes, FIFTY large snails on the shade side of some large pots, and specifically the back side of a composter I had not looked behind for a while. Slugs love to hide on the bottom of pots in the grass where it’s cool. You can set out some pots in the grass or dirt with a little water sprinkled under them as a trap, then clean the slugs off into your composter the next day.
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3. Nothing works like cheap beer. I have a small collection of glazed pot bottoms, the largest of which hold one beer each. Last night I put out three trays, which cost three beers (less than $1.50), and killed 80-90 slugs. This is FAR more effective, and much cheaper than any kind of toxic gick I could buy at the store, and it’s 100% safe.
I only have to do this every couple of months and the bulk of the slugs are vanquished. I’m not worried about a couple of stragglers – the plants can tolerate a few, and I’m sure they’re doing something beneficial for the live-soil and ecosystem.
In two days with about 30 minutes effort (mainly the smashing / squishing time), and $1.50, I removed around 130 slugs and snails from my small garden. I’m going to set trays out tonight on the other side of the yard and see what happens.
Happy hunting.
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This article (Slug Conqueror) is free and open source. It may be reprinted with permission under this Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, with attribution to Brad Rowland and Highlyuncivilized.com. May 28th, 2012.
I put a board out in some plant matter, and in the morning, I check underneath. There are usually some slugs and snails.
Sometimes I give them to the neighbor’s chickens, but I usually throw them out in the street where they get run over. The crows come for a snack.
LOL. Waste not, want not.
Our final tally was around 200, and it took 6 beers. $3 total.
I should’ve counted my slugs and snails. It was a lot. Happily, the number has decreased dramatically.
I should have counted too. And my neighbor told me i should have saved them for her chickens! BTW- what we ended up doing was getting her chickens (she insisted) and having them spend the day in our yard. We’re going to make a regular thing of it.
What about tomato worms? Think it would help kill them?
I haven’t tried it – that’s a really good question. The slugs somehow can ‘smell’ the beer, like from across the yard, and they come over into the little pan and drown. Not sure if the tomato worms would be attracted or not, but it couldn’t hurt to try!
When I had a small farm in Washington State, land of many slugs, we learned about beer, but then were told it was actually the yeast in the beer they liked. So we mixed yeast and water and put that out in bowls, and it worked great.
That’s a great tip, because cheap yeast is even cheaper than cheap beer. And I hate to waste even cheap beer.