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This Slug's For You!

© Keith Muraoka

Tastes great! Less filling! Tastes great! Less filling! Tastes great! Kills you! At least if you're a snail or slug, that is.

According to research by Colorado State University entomologist Whitney Cranshaw, it's definitely the taste of beer that counts when it comes to killing snails and slugs. His detailed snail and slug-attractant trials have finally given credence to that long-rumored home gardening question: Does beer, placed in shallow tins at ground level, attract and kill snails and slugs?

In the past, many home gardeners - after trying the method themselves (me included) - concluded that such beer traps were only a waste of good beer. Oh sure, a few snails are always caught. They fall in and drown, or can't get out after they drink too much. Whatever is the case, it's said they always die with a smile on their faces.

But Cranshaw took the old wive's adage to the fact stage. After three days of trials, he concluded that the brand of beer makes a difference when it comes to trapping the little buggers. The results were given in what he called "Bud Units" - attractiveness expressed as a percentage of capture in Budweiser-baited traps.

He found that Anheuser-Busch products like Budweiser and Michelob were the most "consistently attractive" to snails and slugs. At the same time, however, he found that a non-alcoholic "near beer" called Kingsbury Malt Beverage (a Heileman product) beat all standard beers, not to mention pink Chablis wine, tap water and a sugar water-and-yeast concoction.

The top three beverages were, in order: Kingsbury Malt Beverage, Michelob and Budweiser. It should be noted that in Fort Collins, Colorado -- home of Colorado State University - snails and slugs didn't hold a preference for the Rocky Mountains' own, Coors. Coors Lite finished in sixth place, while Coors was 11th.

Rounding out the top 10 were: Bud Light, Old Milwaukee, Coors Lite, Schaefer, Miller, Strohs and (tie) Lite and sugar water/yeast. Bringing up the rear were Coors, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Rainier, Gallo pink Chablis wine and tap water.

Going a step further, Cranshaw found that the effect of flat beer -- beer that had been exposed to air for 48 hours -- gave diverse results, depending on the beer used. For example, flat Budweiser resulted in sharply reduced slug capture -- from 118 in 48 hours to 28. However, flat Pabst Blue Ribbon showed no detrimental effect, resulting in 125 and 130 slugs captured, respectively.

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