Slug Traps

A walk through the yard the other day revealed lots of tiny berries on the strawberry plants AND lots of irregularly-shaped holes in the foliage.  Most likely cuprit= slugs.  I hadn't seen any gooey trails, but I still had my suspicions that they were there, lurking beneath the mulch.  It was time to set some slug traps.  I didn't have any beer, but my FaceBook plea ("I need a beer!") was answered with two cold ones on my doorstep within the hour.  What an awesome friend! 

So, I used 2 old yogurt containers (the traps will only lure slugs from about a 3 ft. radius, so I needed two for my patch).  Any container with relatively straight sides will do.  I cut 3 or 4 small openings like the one pictured above around the upper edge of the container.

Then, in the strawberry patch, I dug a small hole and buried the container deep enough that the holes were ground-level.

Pop the top and fill container with about 1 inch of beer.

After I replaced the lid, I sprinkled some mulch atop the container to (mostly) hide it from sight.  Can't have any vunsightly plastic garbage visible in my beautiful strawberry beds!

In the morning, I found that only one little slug had gone on a bender last night.  It was a pretty cold night for slugs, though, so I suspect I'll have more as it warms back up.  For best results, the traps should be set and emptied each morning (slugs are most active at night).