On Mon, 20 May 2013 17:10:15 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Mon, 20 May 2013 16:27:36 +0100, Judith in England
wrote:



A friend gave me some lengths of Phosphor Bronze draught excluder he found in
his garage - apparently very popular in the 60s.

Ah yes, Atomic Strip, still available if you Google for it. Effective
as a draught excluder and durable.

It is something like 95% copper.

I thought that it would be perfect for nailing around my raised beds as a slug
deterrent: so I tried a little experiment.

I cut four strips of the material and nailed them to a flat piece of wood in a
square. I then put a slug in the middle of the square. It slowly made its way
across the square - and then straight over the "copper" strip.

Does anyone use copper as a slug deterrent and do you think it makes any
difference?

Never tried it, and never really understood why it was supposed to
work. One web site talks about a 'static charge', which it can't be (a
static charge would almost instantly leak away in those
circumstances), others talk about 'a small electrical charge', which
might be nearer the truth. I suppose it's possible that a small
voltage may be established between the copper and the slug slime or
earth, along the lines of a battery, that gives the slug a tingle,
thus causing it to recoil. In which case your experiment might have
been more successful if the piece of wood and copper strip were wet
and in contact with the ground (I'm assuming they weren't).


I must admit that did occur to me. But I have seen the copper tape advertised
as being useful round raised beds - so I wasn't certain that there had to be
ground contact.
Also I have heard of people putting the tape half way up large pots - so no
earth contact.

I will try at least wet everything and try it again.

(If I can "catch" a slug that is :-)