Alternative to beer in slug traps?

[maverick451]

My garden is infected with slugs and snails and last I kept them under control using slug -beer traps and evening patrols.

Problem was over the course of the year I worked out I spent over £100 on beer! even using the cheapest stuff

Has anyone used a cheaper alternative? I found this recipe somewhere last year and saved it but no idea if it will work?

1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of flour
1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast

[Guest]

I have heard of people using yeast in water but I don't know how well it works. I dilute beer with value bottles of lemonade and it works just as well. Also do you have any pubs near buy? you can always ask for their slops. Oh and cider works as well and again can be diluted

[Bohobumble]

My garden is infected with slugs and snails and last I kept them under control using slug -beer traps and evening patrols.

Problem was over the course of the year I worked out I spent over £100 on beer! even using the cheapest stuff

Has anyone used a cheaper alternative? I found this recipe somewhere last year and saved it but no idea if it will work?

1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of flour
1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast

Make your own beer! If you get a good one, drink it yourself and save some money, if the thing stalls or doesn't turn out use it for slug traps

I rather liked this one; Home Brew Shop | Ingredients | Beer Kits | Wine Kits St Austell Proper Job Extract Recipe Pack proper tasty, it's bound to attract the slugs!

You could also try this, it's something I shall try this year: The war on slugs starts at home - Telegraph

[Bigmallly]

I did a test a few months back. I put some blue pellets in a plastic cup of water, then put it in the soil as you would a beer trap. In the 2nd cup, I dissolved some yeast & put it about a yard away from the pellet cup........Both cups attracted slugs & worked. I picked up some yellow stickered Yeast a few weeks back & have got some blue pellets left so that's the route I'll be going down.

[Scoot]

I bought some of these last year

Growing Success 575g Advanced Slug Killer: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

Organic slug pellets. Only harmful to slugs and snails. Not to any wildlife, dogs or children. They seemed to do the trick.

[skeggijon]

I've found old flat fizzy drinks work pretty well. Although tesco everyday value lager works and its only 25p a can. It doesn't matter if its flat and a can goes a long way when mixed with water

[Bohobumble]

Hi Scoot, I used to use this one sparingly; Wilko Slug Bait 590g at wilko.com which appears to be the same stuff as you use but £3 cheaper.

However as part of some digging around related to this thread and the articles supplied by Nicos and Stan here; http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ets_83212.html I am more hesitant.

It is interesting to note that it's not the Soil Association approving the stuff as 'organic' but these folks Organic Farmers & Growers | Professional Practical Certification the soil association are much more restrictive, a certified grower must apply for permission before each application (http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkC...8%3D&tabid=353) which suggests to me there is still some concern and this link doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy either: Iron(III) phosphate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nematodes, beer, frogs and hedgehogs for me!

[KevinM67]

I've found old flat fizzy drinks work pretty well. Although tesco everyday value lager works and its only 25p a can. It doesn't matter if its flat and a can goes a long way when mixed with water

There's certain pubs in London that charge you over a £5 a pint for stuff like that.

[Scoot]

Hi Scoot, I used to use this one sparingly; Wilko Slug Bait 590g at wilko.com which appears to be the same stuff as you use but £3 cheaper.

However as part of some digging around related to this thread and the articles supplied by Nicos and Stan here; http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ets_83212.html I am more hesitant.

It is interesting to note that it's not the Soil Association approving the stuff as 'organic' but these folks Organic Farmers & Growers | Professional Practical Certification the soil association are much more restrictive, a certified grower must apply for permission before each application (http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkC...8%3D&tabid=353) which suggests to me there is still some concern and this link doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy either: Iron(III) phosphate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nematodes, beer, frogs and hedgehogs for me!

Hmm that puts a different stance on it. I'm a wildlife lover and the reason I bought that stuff for was so it wasn't harmful to anything other than slugs and snails.

[ldw]

last year we made thick circular plaits of copper discarded electrical wire, and placed rings round aubergines, tomates and squash. slug kept off all these plants but gobbled up those without the rings

[Penellype]

Copper is good at keeping slugs off individual plants - I use copper rings for my broccoli etc. But its expensive so only really practical for a few plants.

If you are wanting to trap slugs they will spend the day under anything cool and damp. Rhubarb leaves, grapefruit skins, upturned plant pots, pieces of wood etc are all good places for slugs to hide, and you can go round picking them off. I use this method (mainly with bricks which are being used for other purposes too) as well as copper and nematodes, and I haven't had a big slug problem recently.

You can also go out with a torch at night. Before I discovered nematodes I did this every night for a whole summer, collecting large numbers of slugs large and small, black, grey, yellow and brown. I had a flower bed mulched with cocoashell and found the slugs liked it when it was damp and soft. Cocoashell is a pinkish brown colour and rots down to a dark soil brown. The following year I still had slugs in that bed, but they were all a pinkish brown colour, and showed up nicely on the dark soil. I'd clearly performed a variation of (un)natural selection by eliminating most of the slugs that were not the colour of the cocoashell, whereas the "correct" coloured ones hadn't been so visible.

Incidentally, I find a pair of tweezers is an excellent slug removal tool (and for caterpillars too) - I don't much like touching the slimy critturs.

[Bohobumble]

Just seen these slug-eating plants: what a wonderful notion!

It'd cost a fortune for the whole garden of course, but maybe a few in the greenhouse for those tender crops?

[Plot10]

"last year we made thick circular plaits of copper discarded electrical wire, and placed rings round aubergines, tomates and squash. slug kept off all these plants but gobbled up those without the rings"


I was wondering about that, I've nabbed 4 flexes from irons that failed PAT tests and have stripped the wire out of one so far (stripping the braided cover takes ages).

[muddled]

I used to buy big bags of copper scouring pad rings from poundland which worked really well but now they only sell plastic ones.

I have also had excellent results from (stealing ) my husband's copperslip paste that he has for his motorbike to smear around pots.

I'm experimenting with yeast mixture versus beer this week....

and I can regularly been seen at dusk, diving lamp on head, with chopsticks and a bucket of salty water (it's enough to scare the vandals away.....they think I'm a complete basket case)

I think variety and persistance is the key with slimies.
Use everything you can think of and use it often!

[Marcusp]

Guys trust me on this one and go and by a bag of trout pellets from your local fishing tackle shop. Place them in your slug trap and watch the slugs come from miles.

If I go fishing in the evening and its damp and leave a bucket open containing these pellets you can see the slugs travelling in packs towards it