I read this in New Scientist, I believe.

Take a battery that's apparently drained (doesn't work in your walkman
anymore, for instance). It will most likely have some sort of voltage
left in it, though.

Put the battery on the ground near your precious strawberries. Connect a
loop of un-insulated wire to one end, and another to the other end.
Place the loops so they are around the strawberries, one within the
other, so the wires are within a few millimetres of each other.

Now, whenever a slug smells your yummy strawberries, it will get an
electric shock if it tries to approach!

Haven't tried this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Kae

"Kae Verens" wrote in message
...
I read this in New Scientist, I believe.

Take a battery that's apparently drained (doesn't work in your walkman
anymore, for instance). It will most likely have some sort of voltage
left in it, though.

Put the battery on the ground near your precious strawberries. Connect a
loop of un-insulated wire to one end, and another to the other end.
Place the loops so they are around the strawberries, one within the
other, so the wires are within a few millimetres of each other.

Now, whenever a slug smells your yummy strawberries, it will get an
electric shock if it tries to approach!

Haven't tried this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Kae

This method, whilst good in theory, is never going to work in practice. How
would you keep two loops of wire big enough to go round your strawberries
just a few mm apart all the way round? Nobody's soil is that flat for one
thing, and don't forget weed growth, animals, wind and rain. It's a no-go.

Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much. Shave off
the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go. Getting the soil
flat enough is still a problem, but not if you grow your strawbs on a raised
bed/cradle/whatever. Then you can put the speaker cable round the legs of it
and wiring up will be easy.

Steve

In article ,
says...

Put the battery on the ground near your precious strawberries. Connect a
loop of un-insulated wire to one end, and another to the other end.
Place the loops so they are around the strawberries, one within the
other, so the wires are within a few millimetres of each other.

Now, whenever a slug smells your yummy strawberries, it will get an
electric shock if it tries to approach!


Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much. Shave off
the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go.

Yeah right. As soon as the wire contacts wet soil (you do water your
atrawberries?) it'll discharge the battery.

--
BNSF = Build Now, Seep Forever

Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much. Shave off
the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go. Getting the soil
flat enough is still a problem, but not if you grow your strawbs on a raised
bed/cradle/whatever. Then you can put the speaker cable round the legs of it
and wiring up will be easy.

Steve

Sheesh! Maybe put the whole darned cluster of plants in a giant bug
zapper. This will keep out all birds, cats, dogs, slugs, insects,
even children's sticky fingers.

More seriously, are there no more "natural" or botanical solutions?
I am just getting into this hobby, and even I know stories of plants
such as marigolds, etc that have been used to chase away various pests.
What eats slugs? What chases them away? Are there plants that repel
them? I fear the battery trick will have the problem of shorting out
and dying very rapidly. I have heard of devices that periodically
cause vibrations or some such disturbance in the ground to chase away
some kind of pest. Maybe there is such solution for slugs?

Dominic

Kae Verens wrote:

I read this in New Scientist, I believe.

Take a battery that's apparently drained (doesn't work in your walkman
anymore, for instance). It will most likely have some sort of voltage
left in it, though.

Put the battery on the ground near your precious strawberries. Connect a
loop of un-insulated wire to one end, and another to the other end.
Place the loops so they are around the strawberries, one within the
other, so the wires are within a few millimetres of each other.

Now, whenever a slug smells your yummy strawberries, it will get an
electric shock if it tries to approach!

Haven't tried this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Kae

I think you will find that a loop of bare copper wire without the
battery will work just as well.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Cicero

"Dominic-Luc Webb" wrote in message
...

Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much. Shave
off
the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go. Getting the
soil
flat enough is still a problem, but not if you grow your strawbs on a
raised
bed/cradle/whatever. Then you can put the speaker cable round the legs of
it
and wiring up will be easy.

Steve

Sheesh! Maybe put the whole darned cluster of plants in a giant bug
zapper. This will keep out all birds, cats, dogs, slugs, insects,
even children's sticky fingers.

More seriously, are there no more "natural" or botanical solutions?
I am just getting into this hobby, and even I know stories of plants
such as marigolds, etc that have been used to chase away various pests.
What eats slugs?

French people.

"FDR" wrote in message
...

"Dominic-Luc Webb" wrote in message
...

Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much. Shave
off
the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go. Getting the
soil
flat enough is still a problem, but not if you grow your strawbs on a
raised
bed/cradle/whatever. Then you can put the speaker cable round the legs
of
it
and wiring up will be easy.

Steve

Sheesh! Maybe put the whole darned cluster of plants in a giant bug
zapper. This will keep out all birds, cats, dogs, slugs, insects,
even children's sticky fingers.

More seriously, are there no more "natural" or botanical solutions?
I am just getting into this hobby, and even I know stories of plants
such as marigolds, etc that have been used to chase away various pests.
What eats slugs?

French people.

LOL ;-))) That must make them slug eating cheese eating surrender monkeys,
yes?

(looks over at TV, sees the celebrations of 200th anniversary of Trafalgar,
chuckles a bit)
Steve

Dominic-Luc Webb wrote in
:


Now try this instead. Use twin-core speaker cable instead. The two
conductors are always separated from each other, but not by much.
Shave off the insulation to expose the conductors and there you go.
Getting the soil flat enough is still a problem, but not if you grow
your strawbs on a raised bed/cradle/whatever. Then you can put the
speaker cable round the legs of it and wiring up will be easy.

Steve

Sheesh! Maybe put the whole darned cluster of plants in a giant bug
zapper. This will keep out all birds, cats, dogs, slugs, insects,
even children's sticky fingers.

More seriously, are there no more "natural" or botanical solutions?
I am just getting into this hobby, and even I know stories of plants
such as marigolds, etc that have been used to chase away various
pests. What eats slugs?


Ducks.



--
*** To reply by e-mail, make double u single in address ***

More seriously, are there no more "natural" or botanical solutions?
I am just getting into this hobby, and even I know stories of plants
such as marigolds, etc that have been used to chase away various pests.
What eats slugs?

French people.


He said slugs, not snails....

Dominic

There are plenty of natural organic slug solutions, plenty of inorganic
chemical ones too, the advantage of the natural ones is that they don't
harm the ecosystem, the advantage of the inorganic chemical ones is
that they actually work.

I once tried digging holes and putting small plastic cups (with 1/2
the height cut off) filed with beer in them. A bunch of slugs fell in
and died. We had so many problems that year, including the neighbors
three cats, that nothing helped. However, the beer seemed to be
pretty good.

On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 11:21:00 +0100, Kae Verens wrote:

I read this in New Scientist, I believe.

Take a battery that's apparently drained (doesn't work in your walkman
anymore, for instance). It will most likely have some sort of voltage
left in it, though.

Put the battery on the ground near your precious strawberries. Connect a
loop of un-insulated wire to one end, and another to the other end.
Place the loops so they are around the strawberries, one within the
other, so the wires are within a few millimetres of each other.

Now, whenever a slug smells your yummy strawberries, it will get an
electric shock if it tries to approach!

Haven't tried this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Kae

wrote in message
oups.com...
...... the advantage of the inorganic chemical ones is
that they actually work.

Too true