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

Overnight, the slugs died.

The earthworms and everything else seemed to carry on as before. Not only
were the results organically correct, they were dramatic.

I would like to encourage others to try a heavy sprinkling of fresh
(un-brewed) grounds to deal with slugs. I have a 300 sq ft garden and only
used about 2# of coffee (from a 5# can of "the cheap stuff"), so the
expense is not unbearable.

Apparently their nervous systems can not deal with that much caffeine.

Bill

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.

"Bill" wrote in message
news
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.


Which begs the question, what is the effect on frogs? I have a few little
musical guys living in my back yard and would hate to harm them.

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 21:31:07 +0000, DH wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
news
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.


Which begs the question, what is the effect on frogs? I have a few little
musical guys living in my back yard and would hate to harm them.

I don't know. U of H was using a much higher concentration of caffeine than
the grounds idea. Perhaps you could try them in just a small area of the
garden and see if the frogs avoid it. Don't frogs eat slugs?

I have never had frogs come live here and, with a neighborhood over-run
with cats, likely never will. Thus, I don't know what effect this might
have on them.

Hmmm, would a saucer of no doze work in this case? I mean you can purchase
the pills for less than a can of coffee and dissolve it into the saucer.

I guess I am lucky as I have never had a slug problem. Every once in a
while I find them but not often. Perhaps this is because I placed a bunch
of frogs in my pond and they are eating them Maybe it's the ducks---I don't
know. What ever the case, I would be interested in knowing if a straight
caffeine pill would work dissolved. I know that the local NO SO HEALTHY
Health store carries caffeine pills in varying mg's and it shouldn't take a
rocket scientist to figure out the proper water ml's to mg's to get to 2%.
(Trying to find middle school algebra book as I type)

Could you take the dissolved mixture and spray it on the visible buggers so
you don't have to worry about other critters? But then I guess if you are
doing that it would be just as simple to squish them.

Timber
www.timberslodge.net
....a Step Through Time

"Bill" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 21:31:07 +0000, DH wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
news
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.


Which begs the question, what is the effect on frogs? I have a few
little
musical guys living in my back yard and would hate to harm them.

I don't know. U of H was using a much higher concentration of caffeine
than
the grounds idea. Perhaps you could try them in just a small area of the
garden and see if the frogs avoid it. Don't frogs eat slugs?

I have never had frogs come live here and, with a neighborhood over-run
with cats, likely never will. Thus, I don't know what effect this might
have on them.

I try to garden as organically as possible, and don't like putting
anything on or in the soil if I can help it... I've been using cloches
for all my young plants to protect them from wee slimy beasties (and
the rabbits!)...

if anyone's interested, there's a new cloche system out that is really
clever (and cheap!!), and means you can build cloches to any shape you
fancy. I found it online at www.cloches.co.uk and the bloke who
designed them is a bit of an old eccentric nutcase but very helpful -
he entertained me with stories of Meridian TV cameramen last summer
who came to film his peas which were growing to an enormous height...
:-)