 | Keeping those nasty slugs away from your garden plants can be an annoying task. Slugs can do tremendous damage to a garden because they enjoy feeding on vegetables. They are also known to multiply very rapidly in a garden atmosphere during the spring, when you want them the least.
Slugs love to eat your vegetable plants, but you might be reluctant to use pesticides in your garden.
Pesticides can be effective to rid your garden of slugs, but they are also poisonous to animals and people. If you have small children who enjoy walking through the garden to pick and eat raw vegetables, this could be very dangerous. Even if your children don't eat the vegetables raw, they will still get the chemicals on their hands while picking orplaying in the garden. If a child, in turn, places their hand into their mouth before washing, the pesticide will be ingested.
Keeping your garden clear from poisonous chemicals is also important if you live in an area where there are lots of animals or if you have pets in the yard such as a dog or cat. The animals are attracted to the chemicals and will often lick it right off the plants.
There's a better way to control the number of slugs that enter your garden. A simple slug trap can be effective, and you won't have to use dangerous chemicals on your plants.
Below is a brief explanation of how to build your own simple slug trap. You'll be capturing these slimy little guys in no time.
Supplies:
- Medium-sized container (can or other)
- Water
- Yeast
How to Build the Slug Trap:
Step One:
Drill a hole in your container on one side that's approximately 2 1/2 to 3 inches up from the bottom of the container. The slug should be able to crawl into the hole.
Step Two:
Mix your water with yeast and fill the container by a couple of inches with the liquid being just below the hole, but not covering the hole.
Step Three:
Place the container on soil in or near your garden. The liquid's odor will attract slugs. When the slugs crawl into the hole in your container, they'll drown in the liquid.
You should remove any captured slugs every day. Replace the water and yeast every few days to keep it fresh and the scent strong.
To keep slugs from entering your garden, place several traps around the edges of your garden to attract the slugs before they enter.
Using this simple trap will help keep your garden plants safe from the plant-eating slugs without the use of harmful pesticides. Your garden will soon look healthy again!
|  |
|
