Dead Drunk Slugs

Flash: the Department of Agriculture has just discovered how to banish pests without lethal insecticides like DDT. "Beer, either fresh or stale," reports the department's recent newsletter, "is substantially superior to other bait compounds used to control slugs, one of the most troublesome pests infesting farms, gardens and greenhouses."

Entomologist Floyd F. Smith made the discovery after experiments with various slug killers. In a four-day test, he found that the standard bait, metaldehyde (which must be mixed with arsenic), attracted and killed only 28 slugs. Even then, the chemical caused the slugs to slug back: reacting to the poison, they exuded "copious quantities of slime" that Smith describes as "revolting to householders." By contrast, a shallow pan of beer lured 300 slugs: they sipped, then slipped, and happily drowned in the brew without a fight.

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