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This is a beer-baited slug trap made from two empty drinking water bottles. It introduces no harmful chemicals into the garden and does not harm the local wildlife (apart from the slugs). It also re-purposes items which would normally have been thrown away. Using green bottles makes it merge well into the foliage. Altogether, a green idea.
The first one was made in the space of 5 minutes last week. I have had slugs eating my plants, and a work colleague mentioned the same thing just as I was pouring fizzy water from a bottle. It was one of those 'eureka' moments. I had several of the bottles in my cupboard which would 'come in handy one day', and that was the day! 5 minutes later using only office equipment, I had the first slug trap built.
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Signing UpStep 1Tools and Materials
As I said earlier, this was knocked up in 5 minutes in the office.
You will need two water bottles for each trap. Use the ones with the base moulded into 4 sections (see picture). You could use the 5 but they would be trickier to cut and merge.
The tools you need are stapler, marker pen, measure, scissors.
Also, you'll be needing BEER for bait . . . see later.
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If you have them lying around, baby jars are actually perfect for this.
I've done this a number of times with great success.
Just fill a baby jar with 1/3 beer, and leave it sitting out near any plant/s you want to protect.
A week later, the thing will be filled with slugs. DEAD ones.
Then, simply screw the lid back on the jar and toss in the trash. NO work involved at all! Those glutinous slugs have only their beer-boozing ways to blame....
"Beer is anything from the lightest golden brown, through amber (possibly with a reddish tinge) to dark, dark, dark brown, and when a sip is taken it should overwhelm the senses with the aroma of hops and malt. It should conjure up visions of drying sheds, malt shovelling and barley fields rippling in the summer breeze.
Beer is not a thin insipid beverage which looks roughly the same leaving the body as it did when it entered it. Some breweries have a problem realising this."
For this poetry alone, my friend, if you ever drop in Brussels make a sign and you'll be rewarded. You'll love Belgian's finest :D
Mmmm . . . . A bottle of Chimay Bleue on a cold winter's night - Wonderful.
Thanks for the nice words.
I ask because 4 of my cats have recently been killed this way
I've never heard of slugs being attracted by fish. They prefer vegetable matter.
The only other site I can think of is the 'vets and pets' section of the Motley Fool. I use the UK version, but it's in the US too. You'd probably have to register to post a question about this.
Kill them by all means but don't make them drink that stuff!
LOL