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How To Get Rid Of Slugs - The Easy Way

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 4 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #3488 in How-To, #33102 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

 

Slugs are cool most of the time, they're neat to watch and they serve important roles in the environment. But the little delinquents insist on eating my plants!

So how do I get rid of these munching mollusks in an easy and environmentally friendly way? Simple. Give 'em a beer!

The Damage Slugs Do 

Slugs like to eat plant leaves. This is good for the environment if the leaves are already dead...not so good when they're on live plants in your garden.

The hungry hooligans in our yard love my wife's petunias. Every year they treat those flowers like the dessert bar at Old Country Buffet and pig out.

In the picture below you can see where the edges of the leaves have been munched and holes eaten in the middle. If the leaves on your plants look like this, you probably have slugs in your garden.

Slug Damage

Step 1: Equipment 

You'll need two items for this job:

1. A shallow bowl about 1"-2" deep.

2. Beer.

What Beer Should I Serve The Slugs? 

You can use any beer but according to a Colorado State University study, the brand of beer you use does make a difference. Of the 12 beers they tested, Kingsbury Malt Beverage (a non-alcoholic brew) and Budweiser were found to be most attractive to slugs.

I proudly serve my slugs Yuengling. Why? This will be the slugs' last drink and they should have something good. Besides, it's what I usually drink. I refuse to spend money on a beer I don't like just because some scientist says to. Yuengling wasn't even one of their test beers.

Step 2: Set Up Your Bar 

Position the bowl on the ground amongst the plants that are being eaten. Press the bowl down and twist it a little so that it sits level in the ground.

If possible, get some of the plant leaves to hang over top of the bowl. This gives the bar that tropical feel slugs really dig.

Plan to open your slug bar in the early evening before the slugs become active. I set this one up around 7pm.

Step 3: Start Pouring 

Pop open your beer and pour some into the bowl. I usually fill the the bowl half way. Make sure you get at least 1/2" to 3/4" of beer in the bowl. That will be enough to fully cover and drown the slugs.

To the right you'll see the bar I set up with a nice frothy head on it.

Step 4: Enjoy the Rest of Your Beer 

You'll still have plenty of beer left and the night is young. Kick back, relax and toast your new drinking buddies!

Cheers!

Step 5: Check Your Bar The Next Morning 

Did the slugs have a good time?

Yup. I checked the bar at 8am the next morning and found 22 drunken slugs. There was 1 big guy, 5 medium size and 16 little ones.

That's 22 fewer pests eating my plants every night. Not bad for a couple minutes' effort.

The morning after

Slug Photos 

Slug! by gornabanja

A Slug On A Ice Cream Stick by Cuezed

The High Hurdles in Slug World by papalars

misty slug by nebarnix

20060615 - Slug! by sadalit

Slug on a mission... by Green Wellies

What To Do With The Slugs Afterwards 

Like any container of left over beer, your bowl is going to smell the next day. You might be tempted to reuse that beer and leave your bowl out another night to attract more slugs. It's best to clean up and use fresh beer instead.

Here are a few suggestions for what to do with all those dead drunk slugs...
  1. Slugs are full of protein. Toss your slugs and beer into a blender, throw in some ice cubes, fresh fruit and yogurt. Blend thoroughly and you'll have a slug smoothie! On second thought...slugs can also be full of pesticide residue and parasites so you better skip this one.
  2. Add the mix to your compost pile and let those slugs enrich your garden instead of eating it.
  3. Dump them out in the woods or trash...anywhere that drunken slug smell won't bother you.

Learn more about slugs... 

Slug is a common non-scientific word which is most often applied to any gastropod mollusk whatsoever that has a very reduced shell, a small internal shell, or no shell at all. Gastropods with coiled shells that are big enough to retract into are called snails.

A slug-like body is an adaptation which has occurred many times in various groups of snails, both marine and terrestrial, but the common name "slug" is most frequently encountered as applied to air-breathing land species, including a few agricultural and horticultural pest species. This article is primarily about air-breathing (pulmonate) land slugs.

Evolutionarily speaking, the loss or reduction of the shell in gastropods is a derived characteristic; the same basic body design has independently evolved many times, making slugs a strikingly polyphyletic group. In other words, the shell-less condition has arisen many times in the evolutionary past, and because of this, the various different taxonomic families of slugs, even just of land slugs, are not closely related to one another, despite a superficial similarity in the overall form of the body.

The word "slug" or "sea slug" is also used for many marine species, almost all of which have gills. The largest group of marine shell-less gastropods or sea slugs are the nudibranchs. There are in addition many other groups of sea slug such as the heterobranch sea butterflies, sea angels, and sea hares, as well as the only very distantly related, pelagic, caenogastropod sea slugs, which are within the superfamily Carinarioidea. There is even an air-breathing sea slug, Onchidella.

Category: Image - :Laevecaulis-2.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Tropical leatherleaf slug, Laevicaulis alte

A Bar Needs Music... 

Here are a few tunes to give your slug bar a fun atmosphere.

Friends In Low Places

Slugs...low places...get it? I crack myself up.

Amazon Price: $0.81 (as of 09/06/2008)

I Love This Bar

Make your bar one the slugs will love.

Amazon Price: $0.99 (as of 09/06/2008)

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

Well...one out of three ain't bad.

Amazon Price: $0.99 (as of 09/06/2008)

Comments 

Please share your thoughts on slugs. How do you get rid of slugs and other pests in your garden? Have you tried this method or do you think it's just a waste of good beer?

ByRoy

Great Lens. A god excuse to crack open a few tonight and stop them munching my tomatos

Posted August 15, 2008

clouda9

I'd slug ya in the arm if I could and it would be cuz I really enjoyed this lens! I am taking the slimy little critters a Miller Lite for tonight =D

Posted July 26, 2008

jeffshy

Wow, who knew? We have plenty of slugs, but I like my beer and hate sharing...think I'll give them the dregs at the bottom of the bottle.

Posted July 09, 2008

mulberry

Love the humor, good tips too!

Posted June 12, 2008

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Mac33

About Mac33

We get slugs in our flower garden every year. This remedy takes care of them every time.

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