After a long day of gardening, you may feel the urge to reward yourself with a nice, cold beer. But that bottle can do more than just help you unwind. Much like companion planting and beneficial insects, beer can be used as a form of natural pest control to keep plants free of invaders. Here’s…
Turning Beer Into a Pest Magnet
Beer is a secret weapon in the garden, but not in the way you might think. Unlike marigolds or cinnamon, which drive pests away, beer acts as a lure. Its yeasty, hoppy aroma is irresistible to slugs and snails, drawing them away from your favorite garden plants and into a simple trap. You don’t need a craft IPA for this to work; any cheap, yeasty lager (think Pabst Blue Ribbon, Budweiser, or Coors Banquet) should suffice.
Making a Beer Trap
Because the smell of fermentation is highly attractive to slugs (the nemesis of every gardener in a nonarid climate), a simple beer trap is your best line of defense.
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Making a beer trap couldn’t be easier: Bury a shallow container so the rim sits about an inch above the soil; then, fill it with an inch of cheap lager. This height prevents beneficial insects from tumbling into your trap while allowing slugs — who are expert climbers — to scale the lip and perish in the pool of alcohol below. They have little chance of escaping because the mucus they rely on for movement and grip becomes ineffective and begins to break down once they’re submerged in the beer.
The slugs will eagerly crawl inside the trap and drown or succumb to alcohol poisoning. For the best results, empty and refill your traps every two to three days — or sooner if they fill up quickly. Avoid using old or stale beer, which lacks the yeasty scent needed to attract these slimy pests. Use as many traps as necessary to keep your garden slug-free, placing them 3 to 5 feet away from the plants you’re trying to protect. Tuck them into shady, damp corners where slugs are likely to seek protection from the sun.
