If slugs are currently decimating your balcony plants, the internet will tell you to set up a beer trap.
Honestly, it sounds like a win win. The slugs die happy, it is completely pet safe (unless your dog somehow develops a taste for Stella and falls over drunk), and bonus: you get to drink the other three cans in the four pack.
But there is a massive catch. Slugs can smell fermenting yeast from absolute miles away.
So, if you put that little saucer of beer right next to your prized strawberries or window box herbs, you have not built a defence wall. You have just hosted a happy hour and invited every single slug in the neighbourhood straight into your space.
The Caretaker moves: Absolutely use the beer trap but put it as far away from your actual plants as humanly possible. Lure them away from the good stuff.
5 ways to protect your pots without chemical pellets
If you have moved your beer trap to the other side of the courtyard but still want to protect your plants, do not buy those old blue chemical pellets. They are banned in the UK anyway for poisoning the birds and hedgehogs that are trying to help you eat the pests.
Instead, try these five tactics that work brilliantly for small spaces:
- Copper Tape: Stick self-adhesive copper tape around the rims of your pots. When a slug tries to cross it, their slime causes a disruptive chemical reaction that delivers a nasty tingle. It does not kill them; it just makes them turn right around. It is basically a security fence for terracotta.
- Nematodes: This sounds like sci fi, but it is brilliant. You buy these microscopic worms online, mix them into a watering can, and pour them into your soil. They hunt down and kill slugs underground before they even surface. Total biological warfare, but completely safe for pets, frogs, and birds.
- Your Morning Espresso: Do not throw away your used coffee grounds. Sprinkle them on top of the soil around your plants. Slugs absorb everything through their skin, and caffeine is a natural deterrent to them. Plus, your balcony will smell like a high street coffee shop.
- Wool Pellets: You can buy small pellets made from raw sheep wool. You scatter them around the base of your plants and water them, and they swell up into a felted mat. Slugs absolutely hate crawling over it because the wool saps the moisture right out of their slimy feet.
- The Vaseline Ring of Defence: Slugs must climb up the sides of your pots to get to your plants. If you smear a thick ring of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) around the rim or base of the container, they physically cannot get a grip. Their slime cannot adhere to it, and they just slide right off. It is completely hands free and zero mess.
Over the Fence is a Go To Garden Journal series. New conversations published when the wine is flowing — follow along at gotogarden.uk
Views and opinions are Bob's own — take them in the spirit they are intended.