GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Slugs

RustyHinge · 03-06-2013, 10:55 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 22/05/13 07:10, 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.

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.

I have a small railway around part of the garden. Most of the track is
nickel silver but some is phosphor bronze.
Slugs still crawl over it, even if the power is on. Thats only about
15 Volts but as that does not seem to stop them I don't think the
miniscule amount created by copper strips is going to worry them.
Connected to the mains or an agricultural electric fence it might but
in my case that would upset next doors cat.

To be effective you want a zinc strip and a copper one, about a quarter
of an inch apart.

I doubt very much that the draught excluder strip is phosphor bronze,
which is a bearing material.

--
Rusty Hinge