DIY slug trap?

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419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

There must be someone out there who can explain to mne how to make a SIMPLE slug/snail trap? I know beer is a good bait to use, but is there a nice easy way to make a home-made trap. I had a quick look on Google and all I could find were people selling them. I want to save at least �2 and make my own!

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:37 pm

Put some beer in it, cover with a bit of card or plastic and hey presto! dead slugs.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

HERE are a few ideas.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:40 pm

As far as i know you put containers (flower pots?) flush with the ground at strategic bits round your garden and fill them with beer. You can also get wee green slug pellets ('bout the size of large lighter flints) from garden centres that you sprinkle round the flower beds. AFAIK it's only a few quid fur a packet of thoosins!
B-S

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll try a couple of suggestions later. Mrs. Shiver wasn't impressed with my idea of filling an electric blender full of beer..... you can make the rest up.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:52 pm

I've just read elsewhere a better idea without wasting precious alcohol or putting chemicals into the soil is to stick up bird feeders to, erm, attract birds. They'll eat 'em before they eat the bird seed as slugs are more nutricious. As an added bonus you get to kick back, drink the beer and watch the pretty birdies.

B-S

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:06 pm

adopt a hedgehog as slugs are their primary food.

they make short work of them and will prob wander.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:19 pm

I'm surprised Shiver hasn't asked his mugu to build one for him, and to ship it of course.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 18 Jul 2004 Posts: 2049

shiver metimbers wrote:

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll try a couple of suggestions . . . . .

W. . . . .A. . . . .I. . . . .T . . . . . don�t be so quick to run off before the REAL gardeners have had a chance to wade in on this topic - you are sooooooooo impatient Shiv.

As you can see from the pics below I too have had to battle the slimy slugs. After decades of war I have finally won the battle. And I haven�t spent hardly any money.

Forget the beer filled tuna can/ash tray remedies � too messy � kills valuable insects � and it is really hard to strain out all the little bits when trying to reclaim the beer.

All you need are some old boards. Lay them down in the walkways or other strategic locations and then every morning for about a week lift the boards, scrape up the slugs underneath into a plastic bag and put �em in the garbage. Do that a couple of times each season and the problem will go away. You can also use cabbage leaves, grape fruit rinds or anything else the slugs would like to hide under. Or wait until after dark and go a few doors down and take some boards out of your neighbour�s fence.

I recently discovered the flame wand that attaches to a portable propane tank so I don�t pick them up. Just turn over the board and fire away. I love the smell of burning slugs in the morning � almost like napalm.

Other cheap solutions are:

- sprinkle a 3 inch wide barrier of scratchy material like sharp sand, lime or wood ash. Diatomeceous earth is best but very expensive. Slugs will not crawl through that stuff.

- And last but not least . . . . turn over your soil just before the ground freezes � that will allow the frost to penetrate and freeze the little f*kers to death. And yes I know, the soil doesn�t freeze where you live � so turn the soil on the coldest possible day � it will help.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Snails I used to pick up and throw, but they do tend to wander back, also next door might start throwing theirs across the fence.
My kids used to love collecting snails and racing them. I wasnt too pleased to find my son had brought a pocket full of them upstairs though.

I put down bark and that deterred them for a while but they're baaack!

I've even found snails in my parsley, it grows in a window box 2 floors above ground level !

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:28 pm

My Dad had a plant called a "Hosta" in the garden, slugs and snails absolutely devoured it. There was nothing left, he got sick of putting out beer so he bought these things he saw in a newspaper ad. They were called "Nematodes", little parasites that killed slugs and snails. Biological warfare in a way Laughing

They weren't up to his expectations but they certainly helped, we used to have a hedgehog in the garden but he wondered off down the road and never came back. He's been trying to attract him back for ages, apparently they love catfood. Unfortunately so does our cat, so the problem is as bad as ever. I'll forward some the ideas in this thread to my Dad and then maybe the Hosta will have a chance.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:25 pm

The pellets are the easiest and fastest.
We do it in spring and just did again.
They smell for a day or so but I can live with that.
I hate those things. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:06 am

Admittedly not a sub 2 quid solution.
Chickens or ducks may be worthwhile considering. As an added bonus you have fresh eggs almost every day.

On the downside, the local Reynard may drop in for some of Shiver's Fresh Chicken (or Duck).

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:17 am

Gold Hat wrote:

I recently discovered the flame wand that attaches to a portable propane tank so I don’t pick them up. Just turn over the board and fire away. I love the smell of burning slugs in the morning – almost like napalm.

Reminds me of kd's remedy for trolls Laughing

Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

will get rid of your slugs

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:53 am

Be careful with slug pellets if you have pets (which I think Shiver does?).
When we were kids we used to scoop up slugs (at 1p each from gardening freak mom) and pour salt on them. Cruel but effective.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:56 am

Nematodes work well. Beer traps too. If you were thinking of trying to brew your own beer, now's a good time to start. If the first batch tastes good, drink it and if it doesn't let the slugs have it. Smile

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:47 am

@ Eight, you're not far off there. Shiv' If you can get it, look out for the bottled Guinness brewed in ...(you guessed it) Nigeria. Razz

Someone brought some to my 40th birthday party. I took one swig and poured it into the flower bed. It had a sickly sweet taste, yuk!.
Next day, during the clean up, I noticed a gaggle of slugs lying around stupefied where I'd poured the devil's brew.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:52 am

Gnasher, I forgot about the pets. I don't have any right now but we've been thinking about getting another and glad you reminded me of that. Smile

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:41 am

~Gold Hat,

I had absolutely no idea that gardeners had such a venomous hatred of slugs! ROFL.

This is SO like a Jasper Carrot and the Mole sketch! Dont tell me....
you go around and blast them to smithereens at night. BLAM BLAM...die you little F**kers!

Thank you so much for this, I was giggling myself stupid all day with the images.

@Klaasvaak
With pinched fence boards and ashtrays filled with bear held together with barbed wire and duct tape?
"Well boys, we've done it again, the great slug infestation is no more. I love it when a plan comes together" Laughing

*** BANNED *** Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 3779

Seven of Nine wrote:

Chickens or ducks may be worthwhile considering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Runner_Duck

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:56 pm

And if it doesnt, you can always have Duck l'orange or Peking Duck and a bottle of wine. You wont care about the slugs. ROFL

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:59 pm

Slug pellets are very bad - they give the slugs a short-term defeat and a long-term victory because they kill the natural predators. Please don't use them - there are plenty of more effective organic alternatives Smile

Hedgehogs are brilliant but make sure they can get through fences into neighbouring gardens, else they have to venture out onto the roads. Dogfood, catfood and meat scraps will attract them and help them fin routes between gardens, but (contrary to popular opinion) bread and milk is very harmful to them (it fills their stomachs but they cannot digest it properly, so they end up malnourished).

The fast little black beetles that you see in your garden are slug predators. If your vegetable patch has a vertical barrier all round the circumference (with the patch on the low side), beetles that fall into your patch will be unable to escape, and will stay around to massacre all the slugs in the patch. But beer traps will kill them as well as the slugs, so don't waste the beer.

The idea of creating hiding places is good. I use skins from 1/2 grapefruits as the decoy, then expose them on a bird table and let the blackbirds and trushes clean out the fugitives.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:07 am

Get yourself a garden chair, a can of beer and a .22 air rifle Mr. Green

I once shot a huge slug with a .177 air pistol at very close range aiming for the shiny bit at the back of their head (hey; I was young, I was bored): the damn thing exploded. Shocked

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:40 pm

We had a couple of chooks running around in the back yard and laying a couple of the most delicious eggs every day and they used to keep all the bugs and beasties at bay. Then we got two dogs. No contest so the chooks were sent away to a farm in the country (or that's what we told the kids anyway).