Natural slug bait alternatives?

k_stuart, Nov 9, 10:09am
Help the nasty little critters are eating our strawberries before they have the chance to ripen fully. I am reluctant to use slug bait as our 3yo is often out there raiding the patch.

Any ideas!

helsbelsnz, Nov 9, 10:19am
We made beer traps, but used yeast instead of beer which worked well.Just takes plastic bottles, water and yeast and there are loads of instructions online.

terachaos, Nov 9, 10:30am
Try spent coffee grounds, most critters including dogs and cats will avoid contact with the stuff.

ro42, Nov 9, 10:37am
crushed eggshells scattered over the ground - they don't like it and won't go over it. Combined with beer traps (just tin cans sunk into the ground with some beer in them) it works well.

lythande1, Nov 9, 12:25pm
Tui Quash.

pauldw, Nov 9, 1:04pm
Snails will quite happily chew on egg shell as a source of calcium. Why help them grow bigger! Beer does work.

gilco2, Nov 9, 1:20pm
yep Tui Quash is excellent

bluefrog2, Nov 9, 3:19pm
Tui Quash for me too.Never managed to get beer traps to work.

mottly, Nov 9, 3:26pm
I find sawdust works perfectly

shannie1998, Nov 9, 4:11pm
Also a ring of salt around the plant.

gardie, Nov 10, 5:01am
Yes, but may be detrimental to plants!

ro42, Nov 10, 5:42am
Snails! OK, didn't know that. It works well for slugs.
When I was in France and looking after a pottager, I introduced beer traps because there were so many slugs. They worked so well the tiger slugs (huge stripey slugs that eat other slugs) staked them out - waited by them for the other slugs to turn up. I collected bucketfulls of the horrid things, which the farmer there took to feed to the pigs. The pigs developed quite a taste for beer-flavoured slugs!

k_stuart, Nov 27, 7:08pm
Thanks for the recommendations. I bought some Tui quash and tonight picked an ice-cream container full of strawberries and not a single slug munched one! Before that I was losing probably 40% of them. Stoked :D

neilru, Nov 27, 7:22pm
salt.also beer

sandy11, Dec 22, 10:16pm
Sawdust works well, but make sure it's untreated.