does coffee deter slugs
 

hi all

i heard a rumour.....

im a coffee fan and have spent grinds
available on a daily basis

could i spinkle them in veg containers
will they impart a taste on the veg
(mostly salad leaves)

any thoughts?

tia

niall

does coffee deter slugs
 

"fourmations" wrote in message
...
hi all

i heard a rumour.....

im a coffee fan and have spent grinds
available on a daily basis

could i spinkle them in veg containers
will they impart a taste on the veg
(mostly salad leaves)

any thoughts?

tia

niall

It will tend to keep the slugs awake during the day when they should be
asleep. They may prefer decaf.

rob

does coffee deter slugs
 

"fourmations" wrote

i heard a rumour.....

im a coffee fan and have spent grinds
available on a daily basis

could i spinkle them in veg containers
will they impart a taste on the veg
(mostly salad leaves)

any thoughts?

Yes, there has been some research into this and they found coffee does deter
slugs at low concentrations and kill them at high doses.
I seem to remember that it was the caffeine that did the trick so de-caf
would be no good.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2067214.stm
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2470

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

I conducted a bit of (totally unscientific) research on this last spring/summer. It works, but only up to a point...

The grounds have to be piled on thickly around the plant to be protected.

You must refresh the grounds at least every other day for them to have any effect, ideally every day, because once they dry out/get a soaking in the rain it's no use.

It had no effect on taste/appearance of plants I used it around.

All in all, not really worth the hassle unless you have absolutely mountains of grounds to use up, like if you owned a coffee shop or something. There are other organic mulches you could use to try and reduce slugs, but there must be hundreds of methods and hundreds of opinions on what works and what doesn't!

This year I will be mostly experimenting with egg shells and copper in various forms.

Good luck! Bob

does coffee deter slugs
 

undergroundbob wrote:
All in all, not really worth the hassle unless you have absolutely
mountains of grounds to use up, like if you owned a coffee shop or
something.

Funny you said that. I worked in Sheffield a few weeks ago and the
local Starbucks gave me almost a ton of the stuff to take with me. They
had a basket full of coffee grin asking customers to help themselves to
add to their compost bins.

Now all Starbucks give the stuff away for free. Make sure you bring
buckets with you because they only have huge plastic bags and I had to
decant about 1 ton of it into smaller bags.

does coffee deter slugs
 

I think the bit about the decaff was a joke!


--
Derby, England.

Don't try to email me using "REPLY" as the email address is NoSpam. Our
email address is "thewoodies2 at ntlworld dot com"


"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"fourmations" wrote

i heard a rumour.....

im a coffee fan and have spent grinds
available on a daily basis

could i spinkle them in veg containers
will they impart a taste on the veg
(mostly salad leaves)

any thoughts?

Yes, there has been some research into this and they found coffee does
deter slugs at low concentrations and kill them at high doses.
I seem to remember that it was the caffeine that did the trick so de-caf
would be no good.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2067214.stm
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2470

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

does coffee deter slugs
 

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:09:08 GMT, "Sue" wrote:

I think the bit about the decaff was a joke!


And coffee grounds would have had most of the caffeine stripped out of
them during the percolating.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

does coffee deter slugs
 

On a similar note, what benefit will laying a coffee mulch have for veg
?? Local starbucks gives it away - but I've never been sure whether it
will help veg (carrots, parsnips etc)

A coffee solution sprayed on plants or watered over the soil can repel or kill slugs and snails.

A spray solution of 0.1 percent caffeine (a cup of instant coffee contains about 0.05 percent caffeine) will repel slugs, and a solution of 1-2 percent will kill them.

It is not known how caffeine kills the molluscs, but it seems to damage the nervous system.

Applications can cause leaf-yellowing on some types of plants.

Note; The Food and Environment Protection Act 1986 makes it illegal to use any chemical as a pesticide in Britain unless it has been approved for that purpose.

This applies to all would-be pesticides, even something as innocuous as coffee.

does coffee deter slugs
 

"Scotia" wrote in message
...


A coffee solution sprayed on plants or watered over the soil can repel
or kill slugs and snails.

A spray solution of 0.1 percent caffeine (a cup of instant coffee
contains about 0.05 percent caffeine) will repel slugs, and a solution
of 1-2 percent will kill them.

It is not known how caffeine kills the molluscs, but it seems to damage
the nervous system.


watch out for the animal rights people, they'll be after you.
--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
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