In article ,
(Frank Logullo) wrote:
"Joseph Chong" wrote in message
news:Up_Tb.396744$X%5.110583@pd7tw2no...
Bud light is only fit for slug traps :-)
If you only staple the thing shut how do you keep the beer from running out?
I need to be spoonfed here.
The slugs slime in through the neck then plop in to the beer?
Amazing, now I am actually looking forward to slug season.
jc
Actually, you do not need to be elaborate. A pan of beer sunk a
little into the dirt to allow slugs to crawl in will do. They crawl
in and drown.
Actually, they crawl in, & crawl right back out. It has to be too deep for
them to reach back over the top to continue on through. A yoplay yogurt
cup works very nicely, even big ones can't quite climb back out of that.
I guess if you used poster's idea, you could use less
beer. I used to put in my garden. I suggested it to a coworker one
time but he was afraid he might catch a beer guzzling neighbor. Any
beer will do but after the Super Bowl commercials, I can't think of a
better use for Bud Light 
Frank
[repost below]
Field studies show the majority of slugs crawl into a pan of beer, then
right out, unharmed -- IF it's shallow like in a pie tin. A few will be
killed by the alcohol content per se if the beer is less than an hour old,
but alcohol evaporates off in about an hour, & the only reason they would
die thereafter would be to drown. Slugs can only drown in water that is
deeper than their "foot" can reach them back out & over the edge. If a
Yoplay yogurt cup (with inward-reaching walls) is sunk partly in the
ground (not all the way or beneficial insects will fall in) slugs will
crawl into it after the scent of the beer malt, & can't crawl back out.
The beer has to be changed DAILY; slugs can't smell old stale beer & won't
find it. Slugs have favorites, too. A study at the University of Colorado
discovered slugs dislike some beers & just won't pay attention to them.
They did rather like Michelob & Budweiser. They were MOST enamored of
Kingsbury Malt, which is not alcoholic & never kills slugs toxically, but
the Colorado study used DEEP "professional" slug traps that drowned them.
A University of Ohio study used shallow beer traps with "lids" for the
sake of population & species studies. These were not supposed to kill the
slugs, & didn't kill them. The "hide box" beer traps attracted a lot of
slugs, which liked the beer enough to hang out in the trap (clinging to
the roof) for easy count & species assessment. Essentially beer in a
hide-habitat made them happy rather than dead.
The Entymology Society of America did a study to see how metaldehyde snail
bait worked compared to beer. In greenhouses, with beer traps, they caught
about 300 snails, to every 28 snails caught by metaldehyde bait. This
study was a while back & they didn't compare Sluggo & EscarGo, made from
the first muluscide that honestly WORKS, even when wet, & which is totally
non-toxic to anything but muluscs. It is pure iron phosphate, which snails
like the taste of, but which causes them to slime themselves to death,
unable to eat a thing more in the meantime. Imagine having your mouth full
of jello which you can neither swallow nor spit out, & you slowly starve
to death. How sad for the slugs! The little *******s. By comparison
metaldehyde baits first of all don't attract many slugs, and attract ZERO
slugs when it is matted down with rainfall or garden-waterings. So that
stuff has to be DRY for snails to eat it, but snails aren't so active when
days are dry. If they do eat any of it in the rain, because the toxins
cause the slug to dehydrate to death, this often doesn't happen if it is
raining. It works a bit better inside a box where slugs can find it dry on
a wet day, but essentially metaldehyde bait isn't very appealing to slugs
either way, as the Entymology Society comparisons proved.
But back to the fun Colorado study. Slugs DON'T LIKE Rainier Beer, Strohs,
Pabst Blue Ribbon, Coors, or Millers. Anyone who likes these beers lacks
even the good sense of a slug. Anheiser-Busch beers were across the board
better liked, inducing one soul to suggest a new brand, Slugweiser; but
nothing equalled non-alcoholic Kingsbury Malt in slug appeal, so alchies
who don't dare have anything around the house but near-beer are in like
flint. Slugs didn't like flat beer at all, they wanted it fresh or none of
it. Slugs also don't like wine. Gallo Wine was slightly more appealing
than plain water, but not by much.
[end repost]
Here's a more complete slugpost:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...utput=gpla in
and here's my article on the falsehoods & realities surrounding the
popular idea of coffee grounds as slugbait:
http://www.paghat.com/coffeeslugs.html
I presently use Sluggo, an organic product which so far as the garden is
concerned is merely a fertilizer (pure iron phosphate) but which kills
slugs better than ANYthing ever before concocted. I use it only twice a
year, early in spring, then once more when autumn rains start. It's the
first thing I ever tried (other than hand-picking with flashlight on rainy
nights) that turned out to be pretty much a sure thing.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl:
http://www.paghat.com/