Saturday, July 27, 2013

Slugs and Snails: Make a Beer Baited Slug Trap Mark II

I made this one using an instant noodle container and an Aqua Spike. I used my Dremel to drill a hole for the spike, to hold the roof up. The dremel helped me to add a bit of artistic flair by engraving the roof. It reads: 'The Drunken Slug Inn. Snails welcome.' and the 'S' in slug is a slug :)


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Like the Mark I it seems to be most attractive to slugs rather than snails. So how do we deal with snails?

 photo CoffeeGrounds_zps209258d2.jpg

My housemate planted some cyclamens. She would usually scatter snail pellets around new plants like these but it hasn't been necessary. I had read that coffee grounds can be an effective snail deterrent so we've been scattering that closely around these new plants instead. Additionally, the grounds are a good soil conditioner. We would usually broadcast the grounds over the mulch. It feels good to use gentle, organic pest control that won't linger in the foodchain.

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