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Old 09-06-2018, 09:20 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Tim Watts[_3_] Tim Watts[_3_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2014
Posts: 152
Default Slugs and copper

On 09/06/18 15:29, Bob Hobden wrote:
On 9 Jun 2018 09:05, Tim Watts wrote:
Will slugs and snails really refuse to touch copper?

I've got some seedling herbs outside that they keep having a go at. So I
was wondering if something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072MQFCM7

would actually work?

I'd prefer to keep toxic things like pellets away from foodstuffs plus I
don't want to needlessly kill slugs and snails - we have birds nesting
nearby that like eating them so it seems poor form to damage their food
chain.

Saw something recently and the copper band had to be rather wide to
actually work, like 50mm+. Search copper guitar tape. Can't find the
reference now sorry.


That's interesting... Thanks.

I succumbed to getting some ferric phosphate "organic" pellets in the
farm shop as I noticed them whilst buying some other things. Just to
give the poor seedlings a chance to get going...

But I will try the copper "fence" as the theory should be similar: as
long as it goes tight to the ground, they'd have to climb it.

This is a "rockery" herb garden - a foot long trench along the top of a
dry retaining wall and the higher lawn behind it - so I don't have a lot
of width to lay 2" of tape both sides. But it would be easy to fence it.

Slugs certainly are annoying little gits. Longer term, this bed will be
taken over by a bay tree, lavender and lots of mint.

My longer term plan is to run the herbs in wall planters on the east
wall of the house (big boring wall with 2 tiny windows but lots of sun)
with an automatic drip watering system. If the slugs are hard enough to
climb 4' of dry LBC "Rustic" bare bricks, then I'm not arguing with them!