This is war and I am armed with pepper spray

I am steeping it now and whatever critter keeps eating my rosebuds is in for a HOT time.

oh and so slugs like cheap beer because I saw about a dozen this morning on my coral bells and bellflowers and my DH brought home Milwakees Best for them.

I got Erdingers Dunkel Weizen

nice!!!

needs to be another way than wasting beer - any beer.

Salt included? It does work.

believe me the only thing any beer that comes in a 32oz bottle is good for is killing slugs.

When you mentioned salt I envisioned slugs hanging around margaritas. Think they like tequila?

DH puts salt in his beer - yuk

very very yuck...........good thing he isn't a slug.

I am certain you know what the British put into their beer

This message was edited Jun 16, 2009 8:47 AM

I didn't know that.

My Dad always put salt in his cold beer...Mom always drank the stuff room temperature...I still can't tolerate the taste of beer...unless it's mixed with lemonade.

a canadian that does not like beer - a first!

hehehe...well...I think it has something to do with dad always drinking Labatts 50...wow!! that stuff would grow hair on a rock!

Had to edit what I posted, the British put Lime juice into their beer

The sons drink budlime - yak if I wanted that I would drink lime juice

"that stuff would grow hair on a rock!"

i must be brewing something similiar:)

I've been told that adding salt to the beer increases the effervescent properties. Is this true? If so, is it the bubbles in the beer that kills the slugs, or the hops? Inquiring minds want to now.

alcohol poisoning

Ah!

Adding salt does make it fizzier. I remember a man my Dad used to know...he made homemade beer. It was a great joke of his to ask people if they liked salt in their beer...they'd say ok and he'd add the salt and the beer would fizz up right over the edge of the glass all over the place. Homemade beer is, I guess, more salt sensitive.

perhaps I should go down cellar and get pure alcohol my husband had for guests, I really have no use for it, what do you think, will it work or kill the plants?

They might keel over to the side.

I'm not so sure, Maria. It may be too strong for the plants.

perhaps dilution may do the trick, lol

Now, THERE'S a thought! And it will last longer, too!

I tried the beer traps years ago and didn't catch one slug. Tried it again this week, after they started having their evil little ways with my hosta garden, and it still didn't work. Sluggo doesn't work, in my opinion, and with dogs that's one of my few options. What IS working for me is to buy a head of romaine lettuce and lay leaves down all over the garden. They are LOVING that lettuce. I go out at night and kill a bunch of them on and under the lettuce. Then I go out in the morning and do the same thing. I've probably killed hundreds in the past few days. It's a little more hands on than I would like, but it's effective. Plus, if they get away, at least they are still not eating the plants I care about. Even got a nasty cutworm with lettuce last night. It's tedious, but it's totally working. Haven't seen any obvious holes on my hosta since I started "Operation Lettuce save the Hostas."

I'm also having some effect using the extra strong coffee grounds Starbucks gives away as a barrier around a few hosta. It's too soon to tell how long that will work, though. I imagine all this rain will wash them into the soil and it will have to be reapplied. I tried it with my own grounds a year ago and it didn't work back then. But the key is to make sure there are no snails or slugs hiding before you put down the grounds.

The romaine is a great idea but I am not going to slug hunt........eeeeweeee. I found slug trails on my coffee grounds when they ate the last blooms on my bellflower. I did see exploded slug stuff on the ortho slug bait I put down.

I really am much to delicate to deal with slugs close up and personal I prefer a much more remote and heartless warfare tactic.

Yeah, me too...but with my dogs I can't use the more potent chemical baits. I swore I'd never hunt slugs, but mid June is way too early to see big old holes on my *supposedly* slug resistant hosta. They'd look like swiss cheese in another month, at most. And with all this rain, I'll be stocking up on lettuce!

LOL, now I know what to do with the romaine that bolted. I did some slug patrol with my clippers. Also got some cabbageworms that way too, cuz I didn't have my gloves on or else I would have just squished them all. I guess I'll use the romaine and broccoli as bait, cuz that is bolting as well.