Friday, July 9, 2010

Beer......I'ts what's for dinner

I DISLIKE slugs! Yeah they are kinda cool looking but I don't like them at all.  This year slugs have pretty much destroyed my garden. I go to bed each night knowing they are lurking in my garden and eating all my hard work.
While waiting for my daughter to get out of soccer practice, I ventured over to Fred Meyers to look and see what my options are. I found only one product that was organic and would take care of my slug pest. It was a granule type that needed to be applied every 2 weeks. Problem was that it was $15.99. Way too expensive for my small budget so I started looking for bug spray. Some sort of bug was eating my green bean leaves and starting to attack my pea's leaves. Again only one product that was organic and again it was $15.99. Drats! Why do these have to be so expensive!
Then I stumbled upon some gardening books and found a organic gardening facts book. So I did some research and found a way to avoid all the expensive products. So I grabbed a 6 pack of beer and made my way home after picking up my daughter.
Pretty exciting huh? I was excited to make it! You see slugs like beer. Well who doesn't like a good beer. Good thing slugs aren't picky because I bought the cheapest beer I could find. Funny thing was it brought back old out of high school memories....I'll never tell! Anyways I found a small yogurt cup in our recycling and simply dug a hole and put the yogurt container in it. Made sure to make the yogurt cup at soil level so the slugs could slip right in and have a taste.  Filled it up with beer and there ya have it. I put 3 of these slug traps out and went to bed without a care in the world about slugs.  Guess what happened this morning? 10 lucky slugs were not able to make the garden eating party. Oops....VICTORY!!!!!!

And then there's my insect problem. I'm finally getting some pea's and the bugs are starting to eat the bottom leaves of my plants. NOOOOO! My trusty book told me that if you mix 1 cup of vegetable oil with 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap, you can make a excellent bug spray.  Just take 2 tbsp of that mixture and put it into a spray bottle. One batch of this will last you a whole gardening season.  Fill the spray bottle up with water and shake the snot out of it. Then I simply go spray all the leaves on top and bottom and leave overnight to dry.  I sprayed at night and watered all plants the next day.  Apparently bugs do not like the smell and taste of this mixture and will leave my plants alone.  I will have to wait a week to tell you if this works or not. Don't worry, I will share my results with you.

Here's another cool picture just for you. This amazing flower is in my neighbors front yard and I think its the most whimsical plant ever. If you have a great frugal tip for keeping pest away, leave a comment and help us out. Have a good day!










2 comments:

Attila said...

I've always wanted to know what you do with the dead-but-died-happy slugs after their demise. I mean; what a way to go, but what next?

Surviving and thriving on pennies said...

they go in my compost. I'm too lazy to put them in my garbage can. My 5 yr old twins checked them out for a few minutes. Today I had about 6 more drinking it up. Added perk-Ants seem to love it too! Which is great for me because I keep getting these darn ants in my garden and they drive me nuts.