# Beer traps



## PHONETOOL (Dec 9, 2012)

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I am having a little trouble in one spot of my garden right now and decided to test Beer traps so here it is what they look like as you can see something is starting to eat my lettuce not real severe .. I will start the new lettuce in a different portion of the garden.

Here I am using some plastic containers make sure they are at least 4 inches deep so what ever gets into the beer cannot crawl out also make sure that the top of the containers are level with the soil. Fill containers with a one third portion of beer. I have noticed these traps work for not only snails and slugs but other bugs. I've caught some sort of black bugs Not sure what they are but maybe I will post up a picture if I catch more.


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## stephanie (Jun 21, 2012)

If you can get 1 or 2 liter plastic soda bottles with screw on caps and bury them so the top is level with the ground while laying on it's side with cheap beer in it then once it is full you can screw the caps back on and throw the whole thing into the garbage. it is less messy with the 1 or 2 liter bottles than trays or bowls. also what may be eating your lettuce may be living in the soil and coming out at night. I live up here in western washington and our slugs are easy to spot some get up to 6-8 inches long and we have three types black/brown and the banana slug which looks like a rotting banana. The black and brown ones are the bad ones, they eat the living veggies and plants and are not native they are imported from england. The big banana slugs only eat dead decaying plant material and are native to washington. slugs can also dug up to 6 feet under ground and hibernate. I would get some nematodes both types and spray them on the garden just before sunset or very early in the morning they will help with the in the soil types of soft bodied bugs that come out at night or live in the garden soil.


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## veggiewhisperer (Jun 22, 2012)

The beer traps work like a charm. I had a major potato bug problem a couple of years ago. I couldn't get anything in ground without it being chopped down by those bugs. The potato bugs instantly gravitated towards the traps and I never had a problem with them again. Last year, I had a minor slug infestation. I didn't do the beer trap. I unleashed my kids turtle and used some DE instead.

PHONETOOL: You may also want to use floating row covers as an extra precaution.


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## Shannon (Jun 22, 2012)

I will try the beer traps next year instead of running around the yard like a nut with vinegar in a spray bottle overturning logs and stones that I placed out there for them to hide under so that I can get them. Yuck!


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## PHONETOOL (Dec 9, 2012)

Shannon said:


> I will try the beer traps next year instead of running around the yard like a nut with vinegar in a spray bottle overturning logs and stones that I placed out there for them to hide under so that I can get them. Yuck!


I have been lucky so far they have been pretty effective I haven't seen Slugs or snails but those black bugs are gone.


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## PHONETOOL (Dec 9, 2012)

Here is a picture from January 5 and whatever was eating my lettuce has completely stopped

the bear trap worked

There were some sort of black bug but the traps killed them all As you can see

there is no further damage from bugs you

can compare with the previous picture.
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## PHONETOOL (Dec 9, 2012)

These pictures are from February 11, 2013 Beer traps are doing a good job on capturing slugs

The slugs in my garden prefer Budweiser and as you can see they are dead drunk 
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