h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the absence of any friendly hedgehogs, I found that the best way of controlling slugs is to do the following:
Take a jam jar and sink it up to its rim in earth. Then, fill it 9/10ths with beer. Put four small pebbles around the rim in a square arrangement then place a tile on top. Then wait for the slugs to hurl themselves to their drunken deaths.

You must remember to change the beer often as it goes off if forgotten and rotten slug is a truly horrible smell.

That's probably a better choice than the commercial pellets, many of which warn about attractive and poisonous to dogs. There's no harm in getting them a bit tipsy.

I've heard of people using ash to deter slugs, though I've not tried it.

JTG

The most off-the-wall suggestion I have heard is to sink a coil of wire into the ground and connect a battery across it. This sets up a sort of 'electric fence' which the slugs won't cross. I haven't tried this yet. I suspect it'll have about as much success as my false snake made out of green hose to scare the birds and cats away (i.e. bugger all)

The beer trap definitely works, though. And yes, metaldehyde slug pellets are very poisonous; a friend's dog wolfed a load down and nearly died as a result.

Having the sluggiest(?) garden i know of (i.e. my hostas are all in hanging baskets now,) one further tip for use with a beer trap.

Slugs are picky - strange but true. They like good beer, a dark ale seems to work best. Cheap French lager works as well as the fake snake i.e. bugger all.

Off beer and rotten slug is truly an awful combination. Trust me on this, I know...

BTW, great entry and project JTG.

Sue

One can get purpose made beer traps, I understand, which have a sort of strainer that you can use to extract the bodies of the slugs from the beer. This makes the beer last a bit longer. You can then throw them over the neighbour's fence in the usual fashion.

I know people who might drink the beer if it came with a slug strainer.

Thanks, Sue.

JTG

I just make sure I buy at least twice the amount of beer the slugs need - I don't see why they should have all the fun!

What a way to go though...