Homemade slug trap working! Beware, gruesome pic attached!

I’m reading this whilst away on holiday and imagining the little blighters eating all my seedlings. Very worrying. My Dd collects the slugs and puts them in the freezer, she says this is the most humane as they’ll just go to sleep….

I planted out some salad plants a few days ago, and so far, touch wood, they are surviving! It has been very sunny with no rain for a while, so maybe the slugs and snails aren't so active, but even after a bit of rain last night they are okay.

I put a thick layer of newly bought Strulch around them, beer traps between them, and put plastic bottle cloches over them for the first couple of days.

Fingers crossed...

I found that works until it rains and washes out the smell. Coffee ground will also rot and enrich your soil/

but surely you can put them on your compst heap when they're dead? I always do.

I go and pick the slugs off by hand and take them to the verge by the park.

NOT DOWN THE TOILET - just the 3 P's

Hair - human and animal, is supposed to stop slugs.
You just pile up a thick layer around the plant.

Just to say the rest of that beer has produced a second great ‘crop’ of revolting slimy corpses, which will be emptied into a dark corner of the garden once I’ve remembered to buy some more beer. 🙂

I wish the scone advert wouldn’t pop up when I’m looking at this thread 😱

How long is it okay to leave the same beer in the traps? The cheapest beer isn't very cheap nowadays! A white sort of froth (mould?) appears on top after a few days in mine. Will it still attract slugs and snails, or should I empty and put fresh in?

On disposing of the dead ones I put them on the compost heap usually.

ordinarygirl

I go and pick the slugs off by hand and take them to the verge by the park.

All very well if you can bring yourself to touch the horrible things! I could manage snails, but slugs, no way!

From Wildlife Trust.
Gardens are unnatural situations where many of us encourage plants that wouldn’t normally grow there, dig up those that want to grow there, make special efforts to encourage daffodils to flourish, mow the lawn to stop anything special growing too high and trim the hedgerows into unnatural straight lines. Slugs and snails positively thrive in these environments, particularly if we are growing salad plants and other tasty treats.

Slugs and snails are very important. They provide food for all sorts of mammals, bird, slow worms, earth worms, insects and they are part of the natural balance. Upset that balance by removing them and we can do a lot of harm.. Thrushes in particular thrive on them.

Sorry gardeners. Rewilding anyone? 😀

So all these beer traps and slug baits are killing the food supply for birds, hedgehogs etc. And I love thrushes. No wonder all these creatures are becoming endangered when we kill their food supply. 😥

There needs to be another way. Maybe cover the plants they are eating?

Interestingly hedgehogs don’t like slimy slugs, so scrape slime off with their little paws before scoffing them.