Table of Contents

Introduction

Rabbits
Groundhogs or Woodchucks
Moles
Deer
Raccoons
Birds
Opossums
Squirrels
Mice
Skunks
Slugs

Excerpt from page 32

Today's gardening literature abounds with homey tips on how to get rid of slugs. The most popular notion is that a container of beer will attract the slugs: they will over imbibe fall in and drown. Containers of various shapes and sizes are recommended depending on the authority. One "expert" says that shallow saucers or wide mouth jar tops should be used. Another says that beer evaporates too rapidly in open containers. He plants throwaway bottles in the rows with just the tops sticking out and puts about two inches of beer in the bottom. Beetles as well as slugs fall in. The bottles are replaced a couple of times during the season.

Other authorities claim it is not the beer that attracts the slugs but the yeast that the beer contains. A little "working" sourdough from the kitchen or one teaspoon of dry yeast mixed with three ounces of water may be substituted for the beer with equally good results. But does the beer or yeast attract slugs that would not have come in the first place? Scientists at the Ohio Research and Development Center Wooster, Ohio think it does.

Ruth Stout famed for gardening with a heavy mulch was not troubled by slugs. She thought it was because they had to cross a dry rough area to reach the garden. Substances which slugs apparently dislike to cross are cinders crushed rock or crushed oyster shells. These materials can be used in a two-foot strip around the garden. Anything dusty such as hydrated lime wood ashes powdered rock phosphate or sawdust can also be used but it should be replaced after a rain.

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