I have had a lot of success controlling slugs with beer traps. A beer trap is a dish of beer left in your garden overnight. The idea is the slugs are attracted to the sweet smell of the beer, get drunk and end up drowning in the dish. I have killed dozens of slugs a night with a few traps like this scattered around the garden, and trust me I have had some doozeys!

I use a shallow dish which I bury so the rim is level with the soil. I get the cheapest beer I can find and fill almost to the brim. I have also used watered down wine just as successfully.

Interestingly, I have had this work even with non-alcoholic beer (left by someone at my house!) and non-alcoholic wine (bought by me by mistake!) which undermines the whole ‘getting drunk’ idea.

A dish will usually last two nights before it needs to be refreshed.

If you have a lot of slugs then you will need to keep the traps out for quite a few nights. I have had a heap of rain this Summer and a tonne of slugs. I have had to put out multiple traps over consecutive nights to really make a dint in the population. Over a few days you will find that you are catching fewer and fewer slugs which means the process is working.

It’s also worth remembering that rain will water down the beer and make the traps less effective.

I have only ever caught slugs withe beer traps, never snails. Thankfully snails are less of a problem for me.

The only down side is that beer is not very cheap. It would be cheaper to buy snail and slug pellets however the active ingredient in most of these products is also harmful to a range of other animals including pets.

Attracting birds like magpies or making a safe haven for snail and slug eating lizards like blue-tongues can also help with controlling these annoying pests.