In message , Janet Baraclough
writes
Thanks for all your help folks. Now, can anyone tell me *why* copper
nails are going to work?

They aren't, afaik; hammering hundreds of copper pennies into ancient
trees for luck, doesn't kill them. (It's a tradition in some places).

So my nocturnal hammerings were fun but in vain - oh well.

--
dave @ stejonda

calculate your ecological footprint http://www.lead.org/leadnet/footprint/


Coins hammered into trees were traditionally often silver. Coins are also
relatively small and only hammered a relatively short way into the bark of the
tree, so cause no real damage.

The issue with hammering copper nails into the trees to kill them comes from
the chemical imbalance that is caused by introducing too much copper into the
plant/tree's system. Copper is needed by plants to grow, but like many things,
too much of a good thing can be bad for you. The same goes for plants and
trees. Various trees/plants may have varying tolerances for too much copper,
so depending on the type of tree, age, size, etc. the number of copper nails
needed to kill a tree may vary immensely.

Hope this helps, though I understand the offending trees have now been removed
by mechanical means. Best thing that could have happened to them.

Dave.