On 22/11/2010 23:54, Bertie Doe wrote:
So far, all my spent coffee grinds, have ended up in my compostor ( I
believe there was a thread on ukrg last year).

After reading the following article, I'll separate the coffee and use it
as a spray next year, on the allotment. It also mentions tea leaves as a
good source http://preview.tinyurl.com/34gjnw2

Has this article just been published in ScienceNews? It refers to a 27
June edition of Nature, but Hollingsworth and Campbell (two authors
mentioned) published the paper "Pest Control: Caffeine as a repellent
for slugs and snails" in the 27 June 2002 edition of Nature
(http://www.nature.com/nature/journal.../417915a.html).

Assuming that it works well, probably the main reason why caffeine is
not used commercially against slugs and snails is that it is not patentable.

--

Jeff