"Kae Verens" wrote in message
...
I read this in New Scientist, I believe.

Take a battery that's apparently drained (doesn't work in your walkman
anymore, for instance). It will most likely have some sort of voltage
left in it, though.

Put the battery on the ground near your precious strawberries. Connect a
loop of un-insulated wire to one end, and another to the other end.
Place the loops so they are around the strawberries, one within the
other, so the wires are within a few millimetres of each other.

Now, whenever a slug smells your yummy strawberries, it will get an
electric shock if it tries to approach!

Haven't tried this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Kae

This method, whilst good in theory, is never going to work in practice. How
would you keep two loops of wire big enough to go round your strawberries
just a few mm apart all the way round? Nobody's soil is that flat for one
thing, and don't forget weed growth, animals, wind and rain. It's a no-go.

Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much. Shave off
the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go. Getting the soil
flat enough is still a problem, but not if you grow your strawbs on a raised
bed/cradle/whatever. Then you can put the speaker cable round the legs of it
and wiring up will be easy.

Steve