Slug traps: Effective & easy to make

by Connie Oswald Stofko

“With the rain and high humidity, it’s been a bountiful year for slugs,” said Lyn Chimera of Lessons from Nature.

Many gardeners aren’t happy that the slug population has increased; slugs can injure plants by chewing holes in the leaves and stems. (See photos of damage on this page from Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CASLS). Find more information about dealing with slugs and snails on that page, too.)

One way to deal with slugs is by using a simple slug trap.

One slug trap that has been around for decades uses an aluminum foil pie plate filled with beer. Cheap beer seems to work better than the more expensive brands. You can also use yeast mixed with water to attract slugs.

Here are two more ideas for slug traps you can make at home.

Slug trap #1: Strainer system with cap

My sister, Mary Hoffman from Cheektowaga, gave me this idea.

There are two features of this slug trap that I especially like. First, the cap keeps rain out of the glass so the beer or yeast solution isn’t diluted. Second, you don’t have to pick the dead slugs out of the trap with your fingers; one of the glasses works as a strainer.

You need two thin plastic glasses—the kind you get from a take-out restaurant.

Here are the steps:

• Use a marker to draw a window on one glass. (See photo.) Use a box cutter or other sharp tool to cut out the window.
• Place the glass with the window inside the second glass.
• On the second glass, trace the window that’s on the first glass.
• Pull the second glass off the first one. Cut out the window. You want the windows to line up.
• You can repeat these steps to make another window on the other side of the glasses.
• On the first (inside) glass, make holes in the bottom. You can do this using a drill or using a hammer and nail.
• Put the cap on the glass with the holes.
• Add beer or yeast solution into the glass without holes. Fill it about halfway up.
• Place the glass with the holes and cap into the other glass.
• Dig a hole in your garden. Place the set of glasses with the window just above the level of the soil. Fill in the hole.
• Slugs will climb up the glass, enter the window and drown in the liquid.
• When the slugs are dead, pull out the glass with the holes. The liquid will be strained out through the holes and you can dump out the dead slugs without using your fingers.

Slug trap #2: Rubbing alcohol

Rubbing alcohol works, too, Chimera said.

“By accident I discovered you don’t need to sink a container of beer to soil level.” Chimera said. “I left a five-pound plastic coffee container with rubbing alcohol and water out overnight on the walkway, not even on the soil. The next morning there were a lot of slugs in it.

“My new strategy is putting cottage cheese containers with water and rubbing alcohol sitting right on the soil.”

Bonus slug trap tip

This tip is from the page from Cornell CALS: Use a board trap. Lay a board in the garden overnight. In the morning, turn over the board. You’ll see slugs on the underside of the board; pick off the slugs

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Do you have a variation on slug traps? Leave a comment below. And if you try one of these traps, please let us know how they worked for you. (If you want to send a photo, email it to me at connie@buffaloniagaragardening.com.)