Slugs love beer, but they have trouble swimming in it – no arms.

This fact isn't just amusing, it may save your plants from being gobbled up by slugs and snails.

The Royal Gazette recently met with Bermuda Garden Club member Sylvia Outerbridge and Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) research associate Jamie Bacon to talk about alternatives to using pesticides and herbicides in the home garden.

Mrs. Outerbridge and Dr. Bacon both took part in a pesticides focus group started in 2000, that produced pamphlets about the safe use of pesticides, and effective ways of dealing with various pests like roaches and ants and slugs. Also on the focus group was Walter Saul, owner of Bermuda Pest Control.

The brochure includes recommendations such as putting out beer for your slugs and snails.

On the question of mealy bugs, Mrs. Outerbridge told The Royal Gazette: "After three months of drought and then a lot of rain mealy bugs are flourishing.

I have a croton that is being affected by them. I cut off the affected leaves, and then blasted the plant with the water hose. Sometimes you may have to do this several times. It is important to remain vigilant. Some plants might be too fragile for this but crotons can take it."

One of the aims of the pesticides focus group was to lobby for better legislation in terms of the use of pesticides in Bermuda.

They were largely successful on this front, because this February the Senate passed the Pesticides Safety Act 2008.

The act streamlines the importation of pesticides which will have to be approved by only one Government department, not two, and it will ensure that only authorised people ship them in. Pest control companies and people selling pesticides must get a licence.

Dr. Bacon described the new law as "a very positive step to ensure that human and enviornmental health is protected".

Dr. Bacon is the principle investigator for the Bermuda Amphibian Project supported by BZS. It is a world-renowned project which is investigating the effects of environmental pollution on the health and development of Bermuda's toads and other species.

The research has very significant implications for amphibian populations worldwide that are threatened by pollution.

She and other scientists are amassing data to strongly suggest a link between pesticides and pollution in the environment with amphibian problems such as declining numbers, and increasing deformities such as extra eyes or limbs, among other things.

In the last several years the world has lost 10 percent of amphibian species which includes frogs, toads, newts and salamanders and another 32 percent of the world's 5,743 known amphibian species are threatened with extinction.

Back in the 1990s, Don Linzey, a biology professor at Wytheville Community College in Virginia, found there were the residues of metals and DDE, which is the breakdown product of DDT, and signs of suppressed immune function in both whistling frogs and toads.

Dr. Bacon's recent research with collaborator Douglas Fort found that when tadpoles were raised in contaminated pond water in the laboratory, their immune function was significantly suppressed, which meant they were more vulnerable to infection.

"There are a few strange types of deformities that I definitely think are pesticide related on golf courses," said Dr. Bacon. "I had one golf course stop using a particular pesticide around their pond and the deformity rate plummeted."

Not all pesticides and herbicides are toxic, or dangerous to the public. But the true toxicity of some common herbicides and pesticides is highly controversial.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently took two common pesticides off its list of possible cancer causing agents – bifenthrin, a chemical commonly found in ant killers and termicides, and atrazine, a chemical commonly found in weed killer that has been shown to cause deformities in amphibians.

Europe disagreed with the EPA about bifenthrin, and banned it in January citing its toxicity and links with cancer. And after pressure from several environmental and human health groups, the EPA agreed to reevaluate atrazine as a possible cancer causing agent, starting this month.

But Dr. Bacon said in many cases reducing the amount of these chemicals in the environment started at home.

"Bermudians need to step up to the challenge of finding alternatives to using poisons to control insects and weeds," she said. "There are some alternatives that are safe for your kids and your pets."

Many of the remedies suggested by the Bermuda Garden Club are traditional.

For example, slugs not only can't hold their beer, they don't like crawling over eggshells. Scatter some around your plants to keep them away.

Mrs. Outerbridge has been a member of the Bermuda Garden Club since 2005. She previously lived in Canada, but returned to live in Bermuda 10 years ago.

"When we returned to Bermuda we found our lawn in a sorry state," she said.

"It was rapidly decimated by cinch bug."

Cinch bug is a common problem for Bermuda lawns. The cinch bug eats away at grass, sucking out the moisture and leaving behind a poison that kills the grass.

"They love St. Augustine grass, Kentucky Bluegrass and Bent grass. They also like highly fertilised grass.

Instead of resorting to chemicals to solve the problem, the Outerbridges switched the type of grass in their lawn.

"We started from scratch with Floratam St. Augustine," she said.

"It is a type of St. Augustine grass. The locals call it 'crab grass'. Floratam is a type of grass that has been developed to resist cinch bug. It is quite aggressive. Some people say it even moves out over the weeds. We now have a very nice and dense lawn now."

But she warned that there were no quick fixes.

"It isn't instant," she said. "It takes a couple of years, but we don't have to do much weeding now at all."

Bermudians often suffer from ants in their homes.

"Personally, I have a philosophy," said Mrs. Outerbridge. "Ants are good. They are good for the soil, and they bring nutrients and clean up debris. If they stay outside, I ignore them."

Tracey Caswell, author of 'Tea With Tracey' , a book about living in Bermuda, has a maxim: Keep it clean, keep it dry, keep it moving.

Sometimes prevention is the best cure.

The Bermuda Garden Club frequently offers workshops on this subject. For more information visit www.gardenclubbermuda.org or telephone 232-1273.

Anyone interested in joining the Bermuda Garden Club has to attend one meeting to be eligible. Meetings are always the second Friday of every month, October through May.