Siddipet: Beer to save horticulture farmers from slug menace

Due to slugs damaging horticultural crops in Chinna Kodur mandal, farmers raised the issue with horticulture officials, who then requested assistance from university scientists. In response, scientists Dr. Anitha Kumari, Dr. Preetham, Dr. Veera Suresh, and Horticulture Officer D. Ramesh visited the tomato, chili, and bean crops of farmers Kanugula Nagaraju and Ragiri Ravi in Pedda Kodur village on Saturday.

Siddipet: Beer to trap slugs and snails that eat up crops? Might sound strange, but that is exactly one of the options suggested by scientists of the Sri Konda Lakshmana Bapuji Telangana Horticulture University (SKLTGHU) to farmers in Siddipet district.

With horticulture farmers struggling to save their crops from the slug menace in Siddipet, the scientists have suggested to the farmers to place beer traps in their agriculture fields to check the menace of slugs.

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Since the slugs were feeding on horticulture crops in Chinna Kodur mandal, the farmers had taken up the issue with horticulture officials. The officials sought the intervention of the university’s scientists to check the menace. Following this, scientists Dr Anitha Kumari, Dr Preetham, Dr Veera Suresh and Horticulture Officer D Ramesh visited the tomato, chilli, beans and other horticulture crops of farmers Kanugula Nagaraju and Ragiri Ravi of Pedda Kodur village in the mandal on Saturday.

After noticing the intensity of the damage, the scientists suggested keeping beer-filled containers in the field so that the slugs would get attracted to the beer and fall into the container trap. Later, the farmers can collect them and kill them. The repeated action for a few days would keep the menace away.

However, since beer traps could be a costly option, the scientists have also suggested that the farmers can use common salt to kill the slugs. The farmers can pour the common salt around their fields or get gunny bags filled with common salt and place them in all corners of the fields.

Speaking to Telangana Today, farmer Nagaraju said the beer container trap option was a bit costly for them while the salt’s impact could not survive much due to the morning mist. He said they could make just two traps with each beer. Since even the cheapest beer could cost around Rs.150, the horticulture farmer said the idea was not financially viable for them. Moreover, they could not implement it because they would use sprinklers to irrigate their crops. Nagaraju said the slugs had eaten up his tender beans crop on one acre after which they were now feeding on the ready-to-harvest tomatoes and chili.

Another farmer Ravi demanded the intervention of the State government to check the menace. He feared that the farmers would stop cultivating horticulture crops if the menace of slugs continued.