Dear Mandy,

I live in Portland and have a small garden. But I have a BIG slug problem! They have destroyed all of my pepper plants and my cucumber and basil. I have been strategically placing trays of beer around my garden, per many friends suggestion, and it seems to be working to some degree, but short of creating a beer moat around my garden plot, is there anything else I can do?

Thanks,

Kiri
Portland, OR

Hi Kiri,

I am sorry to hear about your slug problem. I used to live on the Oregon Coast and I am very familiar with how destructive these creatures can be.

I have a couple of suggestions that you can try in order to rid your garden of these pests.

• First try to make your garden and the surrounding area less attractive of a habitat by removing anything that they may be hanging out under, i.e. Bricks, large rocks, or any boards. I understand that this is not always possible but try to give them less of an area to hide.
• The beer method that you have been using is actually suggested because slugs are attracted to yeast. A more effective recipe is 3 cups of water, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tbsp of yeast.
• Try to go out to your garden at night to hand pick as many of them as you can.
• Apply crushed eggshells around the base of the plant to create a barrier that the slug can’t cross.
• Fresh garlic can be toxic to some species of slug and snails. If there is an area that you suspect they may be living, but are unable to dismantle, try to set out a few fresh garlic cloves.
• Mulch with things that slugs don’t like such as organic bark.
• Spraying a mixture of half vinegar and half water will kill slugs. Be very careful when using this mixture as it has been known to burn the plants. This should really be used as a last resort.

Good luck with your slug problem, I hope these suggestions help you.
Mandy

If you have a question, please send it in mandy (at) gardenmandy (dot) com.

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