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Beer for the Garden

Beer isn’t just great for the gardener after a hard day’s work, it’s also great for the health of your garden. One way to put this beverage to work for you is to use it to attract and to kill slugs that can damage your crops and even spread disease. Here’s how to use household items and little extra beer to keep your garden healthy and productive.

You will need a small tin, like a tuna can or a cat food container, a large plastic bottle, and some beer.

Empty and clean the tin. You don’t want to try to get rid of slugs only to bring in the neighborhood stray cats.
Cut the top off of a plastic bottle that has a diameter larger than the tin. This will be used to cover the tin to keep water out, so it needs to be able to fit over the tin completely.
Cut 4 “mouse holes” in the bottle top, one on each side. This is to allow the slugs to get in while it is covering the tin.
Place the tin in the ground near crops that have been affected by slugs or where you have seen their trails. You want the top the tin close to the ground so that the slugs don’t have to work too hard to get to their beer. But, if you notice that you are catching other critters, especially ground beetles that eat slugs, then you are going to want to raise the tin up a little to reduce this risk.
Fill the tin with beer, almost to the top.
Place the bottle over the tin to keep rain from diluting your beer to the point that it does not attract slugs.
Change the beer in the trap and the location of the trap every few days to keep the slugs guessing.

Don’t waste all the beer on the slugs, gardening can be hard work, save some for yourself.

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