Is it true that snails will stay off your plants if you put beer in the garden?

Question

I heard that if you put a saucer full of beer inside an ice cream container (with a hole in the side so they can get in) in the garden, that they drink the beer, get drunk and die? I am wanting to try, but curious if anyone else has actually had success with it?

Answer 1

Everything I learned about dealing with snails I got from the book 50 WAYS TO KILL A SLUG by Sara Ford.

The beer trick works. As do sacrificial plantings (plants that slugs particularly love, placed around the garden to keep the slugs occupied and therefore unlikely to invade the garden proper), anti-slug plantings (there are several plants that slugs absolutely hate which could be placed around the garden to protect it), finding and breaking the slime trail made by one slug (which nearby slugs would otherwise follow), and lots of barrier ideas (soot, diatomaceous earth, and eggshells are just a few of the possibilities - in essence, anything irritating, including shredded paper, they won't crawl over). There are also products like SLUG-GO which are pellets that contain a lot of iron, I think, which kills the slugs but don't harm your soil or plants.

The book contains a number of suggestions for handling slugs, ranging from the humane to the blood-thirsty (or slime-thirsty, as the case may be) and a short list of good anti-slug implements. You gotta appreciate a book that lists a catapult among the useful tools for slug disposal.

The potential reader should take heed – this book is not for the faint of heart. There’s much squishing, poking, chopping, and other violence against slugs described in graphic detail. But the illustrations are charming and the information varied and useful.

Answer 2

It is very simple. You don't need anything but the saucers and the beer. Just place your saucers ( glazed clay is good, is heavy so the wind won't blow it around and won't absorb the beer) on flat ground and fill with beer. A 6 inch saucer is good. One beer will fill 4 of them. Place them where you are seeing the most damage. In the morning you should have any slugs and snail from that area. Check under the saucer for them too. If you get quite a few, place the saucers in the same place the next night. Every day or so move the saucers to a different location to see if you can get any more. I do it all the time and it really does work. Buy the cheapest beer. They are not picky.

Answer 3

Yes-it does work but you need to position the lip/top of the container at ground level.What happens is that slugs and snails will effectively drown happily but you will shortly have a collection of mucky containers dotted around your beds into which bits of soil will have inevitably fallen into the beer etc.
Really slug pellets are the most effective of all options although they are not environmentally friendly and I would certainly not use them near vegetables.
That leaves other possibilities.You can try sharp sand sprinkled around vulnerable plants,coarse grit or ground up eggshells.
Another help is the garden hedgehog (if they live in your area),and to encourage these as they are natural predators of slugs.
Snails can be collected-detoxed-cooked and then eaten with a little garlic butter.
A fitting end eating those who have been eating at your expense.

Answer 4

I have heard this, too, but I live in a happy climate with no snails or slugs. (But there's a foot of snow on the ground, so it ain't that happy (-:.) I say, give it a try! If you don't drink beer, see if a friend will drink half a can for you.

I will say I read about this in Organic Gardening magazine, so I think it really is worth a shot. Jerry Baker says beer is good for your garden, anyway, so if it doesn't work on the snails, it might perk up your veggies when you pour it out. Good luck!

Answer 5

That did not work for me, and I even bought the beer especially to try that. I find that surrounding the vulenerable plants with ashes from a wood fire really helps. Also I have chickens that are allowed in the vegetable garden during the winter. This has helped reduce the slug, snail, population. If it rains (slug weather) then the ash doesn't help much, but keep renewing it.

Answer 6

Yep. The answer about burying small dishes is true. Snails and slugs are attracted to the sweetness of the beer, and the alcohol is poison. It works, to a limited degree. I also think the shells idea will work. Anything hard and small like that will cut up the poor bugs bodies. Best of luck with the garden!

Answer 7

Snails are an undemanding one, place an aluminum pie tin on the floor and fill with beer, the snails will crawl in and die. bugs are a distinctive remember, the appropriate element to do with vegetables an organic and organic insect repellent that may not volatile to you or the plant life. you are able to certainly prepare it stunning as much as harvest. Now on your cucs... properly if it replaced into basically one fat cuc ( and it replaced into rather bitter stunning?) you decide on richer soil, greater fertilizer and perhaps some lime reckoning on what the PH of the floor is. Take a small pattern on your community domicile midsection and that they could attempt your soil and sell you amendments to make your vegetables thrive. Water is likewise key besides as 6-8 hours of sunlight. i admire the straight away 8 cucumber myself, yet there are a number of sort's which includes bush cucs that don't climb yet are in compact timber. Their fruit is done sized nevertheless. Get this organic and organic backyard spray at domicile Depot: EcoSmart 24 oz.. backyard Insect Killer $5.ninety 9

Answer 8

If you "bury" a cat food can or tuna can, etc..at ground level and fill it with beer, a few slugs and snails WILL crawl in and drown. Better solution is ~You can also use "dieanatious earth" (I KNOW I spelled that wrong, but ask at your local nursery:) It is very finely ground up sea shells, and you sprinkle that around your plants and it will take care of them~but it's a natural product and it's safe...well not for the slugs & snails:) I use it around my hostas, because the slugs tear them to shreds!
Good Luck!!

Answer 9

what a waste of beer, just buy some snail bait from the supermarket

Answer 10

I have heard this too, it's the smell of the beer that attracts them and they drown. I live in Scotland so it wouldn't surprise me if they survived the beer, and sat out on my front doorstep all night singing "Flower of Scotland " and shouting "Mary doll are yi in ! " lol