Beer & Slugs

Humans Aren't The Only Creatures Attracted To Beer

Today, I learned an important lesson in slug / human culture - which is that many of both species like beer. In the case of our garden, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

And, like so many humans, for slugs, that beer can be their undoing. And by undoing, I mean they die. More specifically, they drown in beer. And while some may say that if ya gotta go, you may as well drown in beer, my guess is the slugs aren’t too happy about it.

How did we get here you may ask? Well, my wife, who knows a lot about a lot, was having a slug problem in the garden. Our poor kale looked like Swiss cheese. So she set out a plate of Pabst for the little squishy kale eaters and they fell for it, just dozens of them, quite gross actually.

Imagine, stopping by a bar for a drink and then, sploosh, into a swimming pool sized vat of beer you go with no way out. The slugs can’t drink their way out of that. Maybe some humans could?

Anyway, her traps worked. And I don’t know anything about beer, but I know my wife and the only way she’d pay for beer to feed to the slugs is if that beer was bad and cheap.

Curious, I did a little research because wouldn’t it be funny if slugs, like, enjoyed one sort of beer over another?

Alas, nope. Turns out the slugs are attracted to yeast and thus beer. In fact, some gardeners suggest a bread dough slurry to trap the little buggers. But beer does the trick.

I am a little concerned about open plates of beer sitting around in our backyard of course. I mean I know the cat’s smart enough to stay clear, but the dog? Last thing we need is a drunk dog. But then again with our dog, would anybody even notice the difference?