So how do I get rid of these munching mollusks in an easy and environmentally friendly way? Simple...give 'em a beer! It's the best way I've found to get rid of slugs.
The Damage Slugs Do
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
1. A shallow bowl about 1"-2" deep.
2. Beer.
What Beer Should I Serve The 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
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
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
Cheers!
Step 5: Check Your Bar The Next Morning
Did the slugs have a good time?
That's 22 fewer pests eating my plants every night. Not bad for a couple minutes' effort.
The morning after
What To Do With The Slugs Afterwards
Here are a few suggestions for what to do with all those dead drunk slugs...
- 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.
- Add the mix to your compost pile and let those slugs enrich your garden instead of eating it.
- 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 name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell. This is in contrast to the common name snail, which is applied to gastropods that have coiled shells that are big enough to retract into.
All slugs are descended from snails that gradually lost or reduced their shells over time. However, the shell-less condition has arisen many times independently during the evolutionary past, and thus the category "slug" is emphatically a polyphyletic one. The various groups of slugs are not closely related, despite a superficial similarity in the overall body form.
There are marine and terrestrial slugs, but the common name "slug" is most frequently applied to air-breathing land species, while the marine forms are known as sea slugs. Land gastropods with a shell that is not quite vestigial, but is too small to retract into (like many in the family Urocyclidae), are known as semislugs.
Category: Image - :Laevecaulis-2.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Tropical leatherleaf slug, Laevicaulis alte|alt=Photo of small brown invertebrate with a stripe running down its back, sitting on a rock.
A Bar Needs Music...
Friends In Low Places
Slugs...low places...get it? I crack myself up.
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Well...one out of three ain't bad.
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?
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- mulberry mulberry Jun 14, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
- Wow, that's simple enough. But, I'll definitely be skipping the part about throwing them in the blender...
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- CCGAL CCGAL Apr 16, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
- Letting them drown happy & drunk is, I think, much kinder than pouring salt on them, which is what I was taught to do as a child. Once we got geese to eat slugs, but goose poo is actually worse than slugs, so that didn't last long. Our slugs on the pacific northwest are called "banana slugs" because that's exactly what they look like. There's even a slug festival with slug races, and I'm told that the banana slug is actually edible, much like snails, but I can't imagine eating either one.
A child I knew had his first garden at the age of 4, and he was delighted to show me the lovely little picket fence he & his father had surrounded it with. Seriously he looked up at me and said, "The fence doesn't work. The snails and slugs crawled right under it."
I enjoyed this lens.
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- The_Goblins_Den The_Goblins_Den Jan 21, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
- Lots of good info there! Remember to keep on sluggin'!
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- BackyardMom BackyardMom Jan 21, 2009 @ 11:16 am
- Hey, I've been doing this for years and it really does work...although my husband can't seem to see the good in wasting beer on slimy little creatures. I wouldn't give them the good stuff though, cheap beer for my slugs!
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- Pantherart Pantherart Sep 11, 2008 @ 6:39 am
- Great lens never read that report so I guess when spring comes back around I need to get a case of bud and I hope all my slugs are of age. 5 stars
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