Getting the Slugs Out!

This summer I've been really frustrated with my string bean plants being eaten.  I thought they were being eaten by rabbits, until my neighbor filled me in on the issue of slugs.  Yuck.  (See the pictures for examples of string bean plants that have  been eaten by slugs.)

She was using banana peels around her garden to ward them away. I remembered that my mother used to use beer to capture the slugs. So I went searching on the web for solutions.

In some of the pictures you can see little cups that I have buried near the plants to capture the slugs.  According to my research, the slugs are attracted to the beer and they fall in and drown.   At Green Up Medford a few weeks ago I talked to a local composting expert who said you can fish them out and throw them in your compost. Ewww!!!! Luckily, we have 7 year-olds. Nothing disgusts them! So far my daughter has been happily fishing them out and putting them in our compost bin. I gave her strict instructions that I do NOT want to see them!

I have found that the cups I'm using are a little small and other things tend to get into them, I'm going to switch to yogurt containers as they become available.

Other things I am trying right now:

• Sprinkle coffee grounds around the plants to ward off the slugs and other critters
• Sprinkle oatmeal around.  The slugs eat the oatmeal and die.  Then birds come along and eat them.  I've been trying this and haven't seen any dead slugs, but I *do* have a lot of birds around!  You need to re-sprinkle the oatmeal after the rain.

If you're gardening and things seem to be eating your plants low to the ground, it may be slugs.  Give these tips a try and see if the nibbling goes away.  It seems to be working in my garden!

Happy Greening!
Alicia

This post is re-posted from our Green Living blog: Green Lifestyle Consulting.

You can read some of our other posts on gardening directly on the site.