Here's an odd theory, Busch beer sucks and even slugs don't like it?!? Try Miller, Hamms, or an old favorite like PBR or Old Style. I don't know, my slugs two years ago went WILD for my slug saloons with beer in them. Maybe if they are baby slugs they aren't old enough to drink?!?

Marcia

If you have a Starbucks near by, try throwing some UGG's around your lettuce. The caffeine is supposed to kill the slugs (even babies).

Good luck,
PJ

My slugs were at first wild about beer, then went off it after a few years. Evolution at work! I have found that my ground beetles do the job; they like a chopped-leaf mulch to sleep under during daylight, just like slugs. Until your ground beetle density responds to the heavy slug populations, I recommend crushed egg shells, and night-time slug hunts. Regards, Peter.

Slugs are attracted to stale beer, beer that smells yeasty, however, that rain could have diluted the beer enough so it had no attraction. Organic gardeners, or any gardener that mulches, provide a really good habitat for slugs, cool, moist, with lots of available organic matter, so we will have them. I have found spraying the plants with cold, caffienated coffee deters the wee buggers, something discovered by USDA researchers in Hawaii. I have seen numerous times slugs crawling over the coffee grounds around plants which tells me that they, the coffee grounds, are not much of a deterent.

neither is the cold, caffienated coffee but it must make ya feel better

I disagree, darkcloud, since I have seen the cold, caffienated coffee repel slugs. I sprayed the wee buggers with that coffee and watched as they wriggled and writhed and then died just as I have watched slugs crawl over coffee grounds with no apparent harm.

The thought of drunken slugs jazzed on java staggering toward snacks is hysterical. The only thing funnier would be if they were stoned and had the munchies.

The beer has always worked for me as well only I used Bud because they had a big bottle at the liquor store. I told the cashier why I was buying it and he got all excited and said he was taking some home for his garden.

How about spreading some Epsom salts around the plants, its good for the soil and maybe will discourage them...unless they are having Margaritas, that is.

I use some sugar and yeast in water instead of beer now, and I believe the results are even better than they were with beer, and the cost is way less. I put about 1/4 cup sugar and a teaspoon of yeast in a quart of water to make my initial trap mix. As I use it up, I add more sugar and water, but not more yeast. The yeast grows quickly, and maintains a good population on its own. When I put this mixture in traps, I sprinkle a small amount of additional sugar (maybe 1/8 teaspoon) in as well. The mixture foams up in an hour or two, and the slugs flock to their deaths. I also get a small spray bottle and fill it with cheap household ammonia. For a couple of weeks, I will go out in the evening and spray any slugs or snails I see. They just disolve away with the spray, and help to fertilize the plants they had planned on eating. I find that I can make a very big difference for months to come by doing this two week treatment once a year. I have tried the coffee spray, but my slugs don't seem to be impacted by it at all. Perhap other varieties are.
Renais