I Poured Beer in My Garden, and It’s the Smartest Way to Get Rid of Slugs

I love hostas. I have the big, leafy plants all over my yard, and I use them to fill in those shady areas where not much else likes to grow. Unfortunately, slugs also love my hostas just as much as I do, and by mid-summer they have usually made quite a meal out of them. 

For years I’ve heard that the secret to keeping slugs at bay involves a well-placed container of beer in the garden. It’s considered a safe and chemical-free hack to deal with these slimy pests (albeit a weird one). I’m always interested in trying natural pest and weed deterrents, so I was more than willing to fill a small saucer with some of my favorite brews to see if it would make a difference in my yard. 

According to the Gardening Know How blog, you can lure slugs away from your plants by putting a shallow container of beer in your garden. According to the blog, “Slugs and snails are attracted to the yeasty, fermented odor of beer and even prefer it to the fresh smell of your growing plants.” You’ll want to position it next to any plants that are showing signs of slug damage — which typically looks like irregular holes in leaves and stems, as well as that tell-tale snail trail they sometimes leave behind. 

In my garden, the damage was clearly contained to one side of a specific plant, where the slugs made a massive meal out of the variegated green and white leaves of my hosta. The blog says any ol’ beer will do, so I opted to use some of the varieties that I had on hand — a Samuel Adams Cold Snap white ale and a Leinenkugel Summertime Shandy — and I joined the slugs in an evening nightcap as I tested this hack.

Slugs are mostly active at night, so I took a can of my favorite brew out to the garden at dusk and officially opened the “Slug Pub” (the nickname I’ve given the area where I set up the saucer of beer) for business, filling a small container with beer and tucking it close to my plant. Now, it’s worth noting at this point that I was worried about my dog getting into the beer, so I only used one container and I tucked it pretty close to the plant in the hopes that my 5-year-old rescue pup wouldn’t be curious about it. I’m happy to report that he didn’t notice the dish for the duration of the two-ish weeks I tried this method. 

The same can’t be said for the slugs, though. Each night I would go out and refill the saucer with more beer, and each morning I would be greeted by a fresh collection of slugs who had been lured to their demise by the smell of the fermented yeast. I was initially grossed out by the process (emptying beer-soaked slugs into another part of the garden where I hoped our resident garter snake would feed on them gave me the ick), but eventually I saw each full saucer as a sign that my hostas would eventually be restored to their former glory. 

This DIY couldn’t have been easier, and it didn’t cost me anything other than a few splashes of beer every night before bed. It also didn’t require the use of any harsh chemicals or pesticides, which is very important to me because my dog and three children play in close proximity to the area where the slugs have been feasting. 

All told, I would say that this hack was a success, and I’ll definitely be using it for the rest of the growing season; I’ll keep the Slug Pub open until the first frost arrives. I will also start the process earlier in the summer next year to prevent any damage from happening in the first place. Cheers!