Copper Strip Fight Against Slugs

[julia-mag]

Can anyone tell me please, on the rolls of copper strip sold to repel slugs, is it real copper sprayed onto paper, or is it just copper colouring?. I feel it is too flimsy to be the real thing as you just stick it together! Does it deteriorate in the rain? To purchase enough real copper rings for the garden would be astronomical! As my neighbours have mostly concreted their gardens over the slugs have been congregated in mine!

[murraymints]

crushed egg shells and marigolds ....they hate marigolds...

[choux]

We save all egg shells and break th into very small pieces
Scatter them around plants or along drills. Have had good success especially in protection of hostas.

[alavahalf]

Julia .. sit down and I will tell you what I paid for worms last time I went match fishing.
..... £28 for 1kg ... they lasted 2 matches. Worms dearer than the best steak .. they tasted really good.
No they didn't .. but I did win one of the matches.

[julia-mag]

My laptop is so 'sluggish' to-night I think the slugs are laughing at me ! It is stopping andstarting in fits and starts. Just wanted to say thank you everyone for all your comments, I have tried the eggshell method, I save them and then bake them before crushing, have also had some success with rings of sand but thought someone had finally found the answer with copper bands. I welcome any comment that might help save my flowers. They dont touch my Rhubarb!,or come to think of it my onions/leeks.

[Togo]

alva we have the standard dalek type composter, which I get about 25 buckets of compost from every spring. I use it on my veg patch and add some to each tub that we plant up. My son and I emptied it last week and I have it in 3 plastic bags ready to go. I have now started to refill the dalek with the usual organic matter. I am very careful not to let potato peelings, paper, plastic or woody cuttings in there. I add some grass cuttings but not to many, and a through the summer all fruit, veg, and in particular all the debris gathered when we dead head the flowers. If we ever get a dry spell I add a little water, I also remove the lid to allow oxygen intake and stir it up with a garden fork. I also now again add a little of the granular compost maker. (I have been known to take a leek there also when my alvahalf is not about. My Grandads old trick)

[Togo]

Oh alva my dalek, by end of Summer, is full of the most succulent worms. Carp go mental for em.

[julia-mag]

This may sound like a silly question, but when the worms finish in the compost heap do they die off? or do they go out into the garden? They look so different to garden worms and the compost never has worms in it when I use it.

[jomifl]

A few years ago I had the what seemed brilliant idea of having adjacent strips of copper and zinc as slug deterrants., The idea being that when the slug bridged the two metal strips the voltage produce by the combination of them and the slug's slime would at the very least be a deterrant. A few brief experiments revealed that it was useless, so copper alone would be even less effective. This was intended for a friend's veg. patch but as we have a walled garden with a resident hedgehog that has just awoken from his winter slumber we don't need slug/ snail killer otherwise I would have tried parallel wires connected to a battery which I'm pretty sure would work.

[Togo]

A lot depends on the soil type Julia. My veg patch now has lovely dark, small grain, soil after years of TLC and they do survive there. But worms aint daft, they will go deeper if exposed to light and sun.

[alavahalf]

Togo ...The leek confirms it's organic .. enough said ...... it's breath of fresh air to find real people that grasp the issue without copy and paste.

... just checking the rule book regarding indecent exposure on the allotment ... with a tears in my eyes !

[Togo]

Zinc plated slugs would have been a goer jomifl. (*_^)

[jamesnan]

We use cut drink bottles with a strip of copper tape around the top as a collar for lots of small plants, especially runner beans , dahlias etc. This system has been used for about 4 years and seems to do the trick. I have purchased the tape from internet and also bought it in shops quite cheaply and there does not seem to be much difference in the quality. The plants grow up through it.

[Togo]

Indecent exposure alva? The old gag "hides behind the beans and peas" comes to mind.