A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2004 SLUGS AND BEER

I have a BAD slug problem in the summer, so I thought I’d get some info on this website. Sure enough, when I typed “Slugs” into the search I got a bounty of information! One of the slug remedies was beer. I had heard this before, so last year I tried it. I put a saucer of beer out for the slugs. I even dug out a little spot for the saucer to fit into so it would be level with the ground, to make sure the slugs had easy access. I looked outside several times that evening and watched as more and more slugs gathered at the dish. Next morning I removed the empty saucer, thinking that the slugs had crawled off and died. I assumed that the consumption of the alcohol is what was supposed to kill them. So, that night I placed the saucer back out and filled it again with Coors Light. When I looked outside to check on it after a few hours I was amazed to see three times as many slugs as the night before. I thought the beer was doing it’s job...drawing those slimy suckers out of their deepest darkest hiding places. I was thrilled. They drank all the beer in the dish! After four nights of this I got to thinking that something was wrong with this method of slug eradication. I had way more slugs now than I did before. I should have stopped it right then and there, but I thought maybe if I put stronger alcohol in the dish I would see a reduction in slugs the next night. So, the dish was then filled with beer mixed with a little Jim Beam.
(Evidently they had spread the word to every slug in the neighborhood about the “free beer and liquor at the Sowders’ house every night”. The slug partying ended up way out of control. The neighbors were complaining about the noise, some of the slugs were getting mean after they’d had a few and wanted to fight, and they were turning over my pots of seedlings and breaking my little garden ornaments.)
So, no more alcohol for the slugs. The bar was closed!!!

Like I said before, I thought the alcohol in the beer killed them after they drank it. But, I just found out, according to the article I found on this website (“Controlling Slugs and Snails in the Garden”, March 13, 1999), the slugs are supposed to fall in the beer and DROWN. I thought the empty saucer was a “good thing”, as Martha Stewart would say. I didn’t know it was supposed to be filled with drowned slugs the next day!
So, I am going to try the beer thing again this year. I’ve printed out some tiny, little posters to put on rocks, plants and all the usual slug hangouts to announce the re-opening of “Cindy’s Slug Bar”. Only, this time I’m going to be ready. That informative article showed a slug trap made from a plastic jug. This time the beer is going into the plastic jug, and not a saucer!

Thanks for all the great information on this website!

Holy smokes.... I'm still laughing out loud!!!! I was covering at the reception desk for the receptionist to take a break and i read this post and LAUGHED HARD OUT LOUD FOR A LLLOOONNNGGG TIME!!!! People coming up to me and askin " what's so funny?" I told them about the lil slug posters at the usual slug hang outs, and the fighting drunken debauchery...they looked at me as if i was crazy ( they don't understand) Then ythey said, that sounds like how you would describe something!! I laughed, it takes a special sense of humor to come up with this stuff!!!! I'm a lil scared though, to think that another person thinks similar to me!!! How Funny!!! I have to go and read it for the 10th time and laugh just as hard as i did the first time!!!! I love a good story!!! Stupid drunken slugs!!! YUCK

I got the same reaction from the 3 and 5 year olds behind me too???
What's so fun~neeeeeee???
HAHAHAHAHA
And then they walked away!!

I am tickled, that was a good dose of laughter,
the best kind!! Thanks for sharing that Cindy!!!

I have the slugs too, little guys, not big ole honker's like Bill has out his way, but they eat just the same....
I go out at night, and I call it
"Closing Down the Salad Bar" I'm out with my flash light and snippers and clip 'em up!!!
I tell the neighbors if they see anyone in my back yard late at night with a flashlight,
think nothing of it, it's just me
(I do even have one of those miner flashlight types that strap around my head for two handed squwishin'!!! hahahaha!)
I'm not much for chemicals.

Weezie

Thanks for taking the time to look the info up on the previous threads, there's a ton of info there!

Whew!!!!

YOU GUYS ARE THE REASON I LOVE THIS FORUM!!!!

I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard!!!

I hafta tell you guys what I pulled off my plants and garden wall after the rain we had today... ONE-HUNDRED-NINETY-ONE SNAILS

I HAD TO STOP BECAUSE IT WAS GETTING DARK....!!!!!

Where can I get a liquor license?????

Wow, that was soooooo funny

Jillie,
There's a song in there somewheres' isn't there?

One hundred ninety one slugs on the wall,
One hundred ninety one slugs on the wall,
Took one down, passed it around,
One hundred ninety slugs on the wall,
One hundred ninety slugs on the wall.........

Weezie...
You been drinking out of my slug saucer, too?

NUFF SED

Renee...
Glad to know there is someone else out there with the same warped sense of humor!
Even though I am totally serious about something, like the slugs, my story always ends up with people laughing, which as Martha Stewart would say, "Is a good thing"!
My husband came home from work and read this post, and was just shaking his head and smiling (6 pm and probably the first time he had smiled all day). Then I told him I had spilled my guts on this forum (preying mantis post) about the chicken that tried to kill me............

I just had someone ask me how to get rid of slugs, on the radio show and I told them the beer method. However I included somthing to the fact of using the locally brewed beer. Which happens to taste like stump water. BIG Whooooooops!!! I didn't know that particular company was one of my commercial sponsors. Oh well live and learn

OK - have to add my two cents worth. I have had a problem with slugs in my garden the last two seasons - I personally have found that if I sprinkle oat bran in the garden - they gobble it up and die because it seems to bloat the slugs up to the point where they perish! When I go out the following morning, all I find is the carcasses, which can easily be disposed of.
It is really inexpensive and works very well.
Just an alternative!

Ellen I've heard of using oat bran before.....I didn't know if it worked or not and didn't want to look like an idiot putting it out. Glad to know it works. It would be a lot cheaper. I'm excited to try it....Slugs are awful here. I can't stand them!

Sounds like a painful way to die.

ya know what the sad part is? i have no clue if i have slugs or not i haven't looked. but so far, since all my plants are containerized, i haven't seen any damage, but now i know how to dispose of the left-over beer! not to mention the oats that have mealy bugs from lack of use!!

Oat bran ehh? That sound pretty cool. Would that be the same thing as oat meal?

Mike

No I don't think so. Oatmeal is a firmer flake(?) -the oat bran seems to be the fluffier stuff used more in muffins and such. I have found it in my supermarket's bulk food section.

I cannot wait for my husband to read this!!!! We have been in the slug/snail battle for 2 stinkin years now and have gotten quite hostile! It was good to laugh at the whole thing! Our ground stays very moist and there are millions under my mint and all over the yard/garden. Sorry guys, I don't have time to be the designated driver for millions of drunk slugs! I did go the slug bait route....but it doesn't last long! So...I'm goin out for bran! Thanks! Wonder what beer & bran would do? If they ate the bran and then drank the beer.....YOOZZZERS....talk about bloating!

Another way to get rid of slugs or atleast discourage them is to sprinkle egg shells around your plants. Not only is it good for the soil, but slugs and snails, because they have such soft bodies, do not like scratching and scraping over jagged egg-shells to get to their food. It really works for me.
Tempest~

I tried the eggshell option around my hostas last year and it didn't work

Good Stuff!!! I was LMAO!! I think I'd have to try the oat bran too though... seems like a waste of beer to get the slugs all liquored up. Speaking of beer drinking dogs. When I was a kid I grew up on 150 acres that was split up between 5 kids(my mom and her syblings). So we all lived within shouting distance. Every weekend we would all get together to play softball or volleyball or just to be together. The morning after I was always sure to have to go hunt for my labrador Coots. He would knock everyones beer over to get a drink and after everyone went home he would pretty much clean up (we are talking 30+ adults here with aunts, uncles, other kin and friends). Man, he would still be soused the next day and reek for a couple. That dog could put em away.

We have slugs here too, but the many many many MANY robins, crows, ravins, and turkies seem to love them So ya, not much of a problem. Every once in a while, it'll rain and you can see them crawling around on the pavement, but they just make easy meals for the birds ^.^ izall good!

I don't seem to have as many now as I did last year.
Guess I've turned them into alcoholics and they are passed out under a rock somewhere clutching a Jim Beam bottle!!!

Look! They actually make bars for slugs!

Slug Pub

lmao ms. cindy! if i happen to find one of those, i'm gonna have to buy it and sent it to you ^.^

That was funny. I tried the beer thing before, for snails, but did not have the patience of you. When I saw all the snails gathering at the bottle tops of beer, I dumped a little on them. That worked similar to salt, which is cheaper but does not give me an excuse to drink. See, I am not drinking alone, its a little for me a little for the snails...I had 2, the snails had 2. It was getting expensive so I opted for copper wire. At the time, I had a garden bed that was seperated from the grass by 2x4s. I hammered the wire onto the wood around the whole thing. For whatever reason, it worked. I don't know if it works for slugs. The best part was it did not require any upkeep.