4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Tessa the Duchess]

I am about to make some slug traps, daft question I know, but what sort of beer

should I put in them? I'm thinking something sweet, maybe cider?

 

Tessa

[surferdog]

Hi Tessa, I think it's lager - I was reading in a gardening magazine how someone used the really cheap own brand lager from the supermarkets. I think the slugs are attacted to the yeasty smell.

 

Do you know if you can feed the resulting 'catch' to the chickens or would it be too alcoholic? (Probably a silly question )

[Tessa the Duchess]

 

Do you know if you can feed the resulting 'catch' to the chickens or would it be too alcoholic? (Probably a silly question )

 

Ooh good question. Slug marinaded in lager for dinner tonight girls Thanks for info will buy some cheapy lager.

 

Tessa

[Tara.F]

it's actually the yeasty smell that attracts them (or so I've heard) and good results can be had with marmite water they reckon

 

I would suggest the cheapest lager or bitter....or the dregs from your local pub's splash trays which will be free

[Tessa the Duchess]

it's actually the yeasty smell that attracts them (or so I've heard) and good results can be had with marmite water they reckon

 

Never heard the Marmite thing. I think I will try Marmite first and see how it goes, also I would feel fine feeding the 'catch' to the chooks if they had been soaked in Marmite. Thanks for this tip

 

Tessa

[surferdog]

Would be interested to hear how it goes...my lot being drunk and disorderly doesn't bear thinking about. They're bad enough as it is

[FruitandNutCake]

The instructions I got with my traps said yeast solution was better (and probably cheaper) than beer. I just put a teaspoon of yeast in a large glas of warm water with a teaspoon of salt.

 

Not sure if it really works - when I empty I find slugs under the trap but not in it!

[Tessa the Duchess]

The instructions I got with my traps said yeast solution was better (and probably cheaper) than beer. I just put a teaspoon of yeast in a large glas of warm water with a teaspoon of salt.

 

Interesting. Do you use the dried yeast used for breadmaking?

 

Tessa

[ubereglu]

Ooh, I think I will try doing slug traps with marmite in, as we have that in our house, put no beer.

 

What's a good way of making homemade traps then as we don't have any.

[Tessa the Duchess]

What's a good way of making homemade traps then as we don't have any.

 

I am going to use empty 2litre plastic drinks bottles. Cut them down to about 4"

and then bury them in the soil near the plants you don't want destroyed. Half fill with beer/marmite etc., Dunno if this is right but am going to try it.

 

Tessa.

[surferdog]

I've seen them done with old plastic coffee cups as well - the type you get from vending machines.

[Tara.F]

the best way is to use plastic milk bottle or margerine tubs with lids so they don't fill with rainwater and so beneficial wee beasties and small mammals don't wander in and drown.

make a cut, like a square about 3 inches from the bottom big enough for a snail to get in.

Then sink your trap in the ground so that the hole is 1 to 2 cm above ground level.

empty daily, dead slugs stink to high heaven otherwise.

and don't add salt....they avoid it like the plague

[ubereglu]

Yesterday I found a way to make them on the internet. You cut the neck off a bottle and then put it into the bigger section upside down into the bottle and then fill it with sugar solution. Then they funnel into the bottle and drown!

[FruitandNutCake]

I just used bakers yeast from the cupboard that I used for making crumpets once! I read though that you have to have a trap per plant for it to be effective! i.e. Slugs won't travel acroos the garden just for a drink of beer!

[Tessa the Duchess]

I read though that you have to have a trap per plant for it to be effective! i.e. Slugs won't travel acroos the garden just for a drink of beer!

 

I learned this the hard way Despite of my carefully placed traps 'they' got all my tomato plants Luckily I had some spares in the mini greenhouse, so am starting again. I don't know what to do now, I absolutely do not want to use slug pellets. My chickens are fenced off from my veggies but I have loads of wild birds in the garden so pellets are a no no.

 

Tessa

[FruitandNutCake]

I have the same problem - my 12 ft x 12ft strawberry patch is just starting to produce ripe fruit and I lost loads last year. My chickens still won't eat snails, but will probably eat the strawberries! So I can't let the chickens amongst the strawberries, but I still don't want to use poisonous pellets. It's too big an area to sprinkle sharp sand or broken egg shell and there is not enough room to squeeze a beer trap in between each strawberry plant - so I'm off to garden centre in search of non-toxic slug pellets that still kill the slugs not just deter them.

[Matthew]

I read though that you have to have a trap per plant for it to be effective! i.e. Slugs won't travel acroos the garden just for a drink of beer!

 

I learned this the hard way Despite of my carefully placed traps 'they' got all my tomato plants Luckily I had some spares in the mini greenhouse, so am starting again. I don't know what to do now, I absolutely do not want to use slug pellets. My chickens are fenced off from my veggies but I have loads of wild birds in the garden so pellets are a no no.

 

Tessa

 

I use coffee grounds free from Starbucks and spread around my more valuable individual crops and circling groups of my seed bed occupants. Spread thinly as a barrier as they hate travelling over it

[Lesley Taylor]

Hi everyone, I just use the chaepest beer i can find and use yogurt pots to put it in buried up to the neck in the soil, then remove with a very small seive  what gets caught.