slug bots
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 12:18AM Slugs are a great pest in the garden- but how to get rid of them? You don't want to be dousing your plants with pesticide on the other hand you don't want them eaten. Beer is a good answer- small dishes of beer laid around the perimeter both attract and kill any inquistive slugs. Problem is, once a slug or two has died the others learn to avoid the trap. So you need to move them daily- but how do you police your patch when you're away? The answer could be the slug bot. Very cheaply made from a simple electric motor connected to two large wheels, say three inches in diameter, with a solar cell and a large capacitor to store charge for about 45 seconds movement. That's all the bot needs to wind up and go. The bot, being two wheeled, has a random directional aim, which is what you want. It has a sensor switch at the front so that when it hits an object it goes into reverse. The killing part of the bot is a non-spill canister filled with beer which allows slug ingress but not egress. The idea is to have four or forty randomly patrolling your garden.
Reader Comments (1)
Love this image. There are so many problems in the world - best to start small and build.