On Mon, 03 Jun 2013 22:55:35 +0100, RustyHinge wrote:

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

Also known as "Atomic Strip" still available and the ads say it's
pure copper. However the old stuff that I have (somewhere) is very
springy, far more than copper from a bit of tube or hot water
cylinder. I guess it might be cold rolled to harden it but wouldn't
that also make it brittle?

Certainly the stuff I have, which is probably in the order of 50
years or more old hasn't tarnished like copper does in air. It's not
bright but it still has a bit of a shine not the matt dark brown that
copper goes in dry air. I'd say mine at least is a copper alloy of
some sort, Phosphor Bronze is what my Dad called it. Beryllium Copper
is also springy and hard but beryllium is toxic and I suspect more
expensive than tin...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 04/06/13 00:51, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 03 Jun 2013 22:55:35 +0100, RustyHinge wrote:

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

Also known as "Atomic Strip" still available and the ads say it's
pure copper. However the old stuff that I have (somewhere) is very
springy, far more than copper from a bit of tube or hot water
cylinder. I guess it might be cold rolled to harden it but wouldn't
that also make it brittle?

May be beryllium copper - the stuff Beatty uses for tellingbone wires.
Very springy and not distorted easily. (I use it for UHF/Microwave aerials)

Certainly the stuff I have, which is probably in the order of 50
years or more old hasn't tarnished like copper does in air. It's not
bright but it still has a bit of a shine not the matt dark brown that
copper goes in dry air. I'd say mine at least is a copper alloy of
some sort, Phosphor Bronze is what my Dad called it. Beryllium Copper
is also springy and hard but beryllium is toxic and I suspect more
expensive than tin...

Hum. Copper will alloy with a surprising number of metals to make a
range of 'bronzes': aluminium, nickel, zirconium, tin and beryllium are
the most common (I think...) but a little silver counterintuitively
hardens it to something like steel.

--
Rusty Hinge

On Monday, June 3, 2013 10:58:39 PM UTC+1, RustyHinge wrote:
On 23/05/13 10:00, Darkside wrote:
In article , Judith in
England writes
much snip


Does anyone use copper as a slug deterrent and do you think it makes any
difference?

With one strip of shiny copper tape around each pot he gets no dead
slugs or snails at all so he deduced that the tape keeps them out.

All the speculation as to how it works is just that: speculation (with

indeed, no-one seems to know. Electrical hypotheses dont really add up. A single strip of copper on a dry plastic pot wont do anything electrical to anyone.

maybe a smidge of quantum fruitloopery). It's interesting that it
doesn't seem to work consistently. If I could get some I'd try
different species of gastropod in different conditions.
Whelks?
Now, where can I get lily beetle tape?

The stationer. Double-sided sticky tape will catch them all - and
everything else.

I tried parcel tape wrapped inside out, slugs crawl over it with impunity. I guess the slime makes them not stick.

After all other measures had failed and plants were on the edge of oblivion, I took a gamble and put copper wire strands round the plant stems. Its worked a treat. I just took one strand from some mains flex, wrapped it 1-3 turns round the stem, job done. Where slugs could get on the plants by other routes I wrapped those similarly.

More established plants of the same species and same location arent affected, so maybe I wont need to do it next year.


NT