Beer works

Just thought I'd get your attention.


A few weeks ago, Michael and I purchased a couple of flats of flowers for our front beds--zinnias and petunias. A few days ago, I noticed that the petunias were getting eaten alive. Literally.

After intense research (read: Google), I determined that the heartless criminals were either earwigs and/or slugs. I went to Lowe's with the expectation of purchasing some sort of fancy pesticide or trap, but when I learned of the possibility for pet fatalities (our neighbors have a roaming dog and cats), I decided to opt for the more homeopathic and only slightly less sophisticated method: beer in a cup.

Considering the fact that I have never drunk alcohol, not to mention purchased it, I felt somewhat uncomfortable as a good ole' Mormon girl with the idea of going to Kroger and buying some.

So we did what any good teetotalers would do: we asked a nice neighbor. (Didn't you know all teetotalers have good relationships with their neighbors?) Fortunately, he happened to have a couple of cans of Guinness on hand, and he didn't mind sharing the love.

(Excuse the blurriness--I used the "night" feature outside.) The very aesthetic cottage cheese container contains canola oil and soy sauce, which one website said will lure and then drown ear wigs. We've since decided that we have mostly slugs, but I figured I might as well leave it out there.

Placed carefully throughout our lovely flowers are alternating cups of canola oil and beer. This one is beer (it's still foamy). Do you see the eaten leaf on the right plant? (Sniff.)

This morning, when I went out to--gulp--check the cups, I found about 10 slugs. I also killed three more that I found with salt. I thought about taking a shot of the dead slugs, but then I realized that there might be pregnant women reading this blog, and I'd hate to be the one to induce any unnecessary vomiting.

'Cuz it was really gross.

Fortunately, it did work, so hopefully those two cans of beer will keep us in the slug-killing business for awhile.

In the meanwhile, we can enjoy our back porch:

Bougainvillea (on the left) is one of my favorites. The other two are Calibrachoa--trailing petunias. They're pretty nice, too. Let's hope they aren't attacked by anything (although, even as I'm writing this, I think the white one has white flies or something . . . sigh).

And if all else fails, we can let our frustrations out by playing jaw tug-o-war with a popsicle stick.