Having slug problems in the garden?
I’ve seen beer traps get serious love, but also some serious hate. For some of us, they work great! But others remain slug infested and frustrated… even more so when the only thing they accomplished was to share their precious hard-earned beer with the enemy.
I use slug traps every year, because I don’t want to put Sluggo or whatever pesticides into my soil. And because they repeatedly work for me, year after year, so I haven’t had the need to resort to pesticides.
I think the main issue with a lot of the beer tutorials is that they say to use a wide, shallow dish. ERM, NO. That is basically offering the little bastards a few delicious sips of beer to wash down all that romaine and spinach they just dined on.
The whole thing about slugs is that they can….. climb walls… hello! A shallow pan is easy to get out of even if they do fall into the beer. The key is to make it deeper. Not too deep, not too wide – you don’t want to have to use a 12 pack each time you’re refilling your traps, so try to find a container that is deep enough to drown them, but not too wide or so deep that you’re wasting a lot of beer that ends up getting dumped out after a week or two.
The sweet spot for me is 4-5 oz plastic cups. Dig a hole and place them inside, leaving the rim slightly above the soil level so dirt doesn’t spill over into it. Fill it up, leaving just a little space below the rim.
Then the slugs climb down for a tasty sip, fall into the beer, where it’s much harder to climb all the way out compared to a shallow pan…. and you end up with a glorious Slug Cemetery down in the bottom of the cup after a few days.
After a week or two, your lettuce is looking beautiful again, and everyone is happy! Well, except for the slugs.
[ Insert sad slug noises here ]
How many cups do you need? One 12 oz beer will fill 3 cups, and I use about 8-9 cups in my lettuce/leafy greens bed. Roughly one cup every 2-3 ft works for me, but adjust to your liking. So each time I refill my cups, I use up about 3 beers. I refill roughly once a week in the spring, then every 2 or 3 weeks once the body count starts to die down and they are under control. Refill when cups are low on beer or getting murky from the dead slugs inside. By early summer I’m not refilling at all anymore, the jerks are either dead and gone, or it’s just finally too hot. Last year they really liked the Corona I put out, but whatever cheap beer you have available should do the trick. It’s the wheat in the beer, so don’t bother wasting your Hard Seltzers or sugary booze if you are out of the cheap light beer, just make the trip and get a few tall boys for the slugs and maybe a couple for yourself.
Watering considerations:
I have sprinklers on my drip system, so I had to make little covers to keep the water out. That prevents the traps from having to be refilled constantly after being diluted by the watering. Just keep enough space to let the slugs crawl under the cover and they will still come beer hunting.
Sounds like a lot? It can be, the first few tries. But with practice it’s easy and worth it so you don’t walk out looking for a crispy piece of lettuce only to find it has been munched on and now looks like Swiss cheese. That is the absolute worst.
Anywho – I hope this helps you with your slug woes! It works wonders for me and I don’t have to use pesticides, so the whole setup is totally worth it. Put your slug traps out as soon as you have lettuce or anything leafy in the ground, because if they aren’t there yet – they will be soon!
Another important side note: I have slugs. Not snails. I never see snails, I am just fighting off the little slugs that come up at night, munch away on my lettuce, and in the morning crawl back down to hell where they came from. So if you’re dealing with snails, maybe beer traps don’t work as well on them, I am not sure. Whatever it is – and as always – take the time to figure out what you are actually fighting off before you start the battle, It will save you time and money in the long run!
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