On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 22:23:52 +0000, yew wrote:

Bill wrote:

Last year I followed up on some University of
Hawaii research by sprinkling fresh coffee
grounds on my soil when the slugs got bad.

I read that they used a 2% caffeine solution, not coffee. Caffeine is a
powerful neurotoxin and at this dose would probably kill beneficials as well
as slugs. If coffee (a much lower dose of caffeine) could be used, that
might be worth considering. Where did you find your info?

Brina

I found my info online (dunno where, the URL is lost). Yes, a lot of the
conversation on this list dealt with whether or not spent grounds were
strong enough to do the job and I just took it upon myself to give the
unused grounds a try. It worked. Overnight.

That's all I am reporting because that's all I can objectively say. Quite
possibly the students were using a 2% solution because that was readily
availble via commercial sources and seemed a good place to begin.

The Univ. of Hawaii research was focused (IIRC) on the effect of the
caffeine on amphibians (frogs, to be precise) and the death of the slugs
was something noticed in passing.