Autumn pests- using beer traps

With both warm and cool days and the amount of rain we've had lately the army of snails, slugs, earwigs, slaters and their hungry friends on the march and they're probably headed right to your seedlings and growing vegies!

You don't need to use harmful synthetic chemical pesticides, in fact our Growers are required to sign a Growers' Charter which can be found HERE to agree that they will not use synthetic pesticides in the production of the food grown for Grow Lightly.

So how do you combat this pest problem? You can first do the least harmful things which is plant smartly, use barriers like tubes or crushed egg shells and copper tape to protect young seedlings. Encourage natural pest management into your garden like native birds and parasitic wasps, and clean up any old, rotting or fallen leaves.

But when it comes to reducing the numbers of these pests when their numbers become damaging to your production, you can make a simple beer or yeast trap!

Collect a container with a lid, such as a plastic milk bottle or juice bottle (think about first using the ones that you can't claim 10 cent refunds on) and carefully cut a 3 sided flap out of one side, or more sides if you like. Leaving enough space below to bury into the soil so that the bottom of the hole is level with the soil surface. Bend the flap up, creating a little roof to keep water from pooling into the bottle.

You can also use a beer bottle on its side, but the opening is not very big so snails probably won't fit.

Bury the base of the container into the soil, and flatten out the soil on the side of the opening so it is a smooth transition for the creepy crawlies to wander in.

Remove the lid, and pour in some beer or a mix of vegemite or other yeast in water, into the container, about a third of a bottle should be enough.

The creatures will crawl their way in attracted to the smell of the yeast and fermentation, have a drink, get drunk and sleepy, and inevitably drown because they cannot get back out.

After a week or so, you can tip out the contents of the bottle into your compost and refill the beer trap again.