Slug saloons of death

Our strawberries have been getting eaten by slugs. We're trying to grow organic as much as we can, if for no other reason than being able to eat berries straight from the garden without having to worry about what might be on them. That means the slug bait is out. But, unlike some of the other organic ideas we've tried to get rid of various pests this year, we have a tried and true solution when it comes to killing slugs.

Beer.

The little buggers-- er, sluggers just LOVE the stuff. We take empty tin cans, usually the 8 oz. size that tomato sauce comes in, but other sizes work too. We bury the cans in the dirt so that a only a small part of the can sticks up above ground. Then we fill them about half-full of beer.

For some reason slugs love the smell of beer, and they'll come from miles-- I mean, feet around to get to it. They crawl over the side of the can, drink it, fall in, and drown. You'll need to dump the cans and change the beer every few days, mainly because slugs in beer turn into something really gross if left too long.

Our strawberry beds are 3' x 13', so we put one can in either end. We may still get a little slug nibblage around the perimeter and could possibly add one more can to the center, but this works well enough. We've had a single can handle a single 6' diameter patch before.

The best part is that the slugs really don't care about quality. Cheap beer works as well as any. They don't care if it's stale, either, so if your beer goes flat, just put in in the garden. After a week or two the slug saloon patronage should drop off significantly. After that you can continue to put some out, or just wait until the slugs start showing signs of a comeback.