Topic: Copper and Slugs/Snails Questions.

[Spookyville]

We have used the copper tape around strawberry pots etc before and seems to work to a certain degree.

Always found the odd snail got past the defences though - are they not affected by it in the same way as slugs??

Also after gardeners world last week I am tempted to get some copper pipe to drill around the beds as a further barrier.

How long is it effective for - seems to go green quite often probably after contact with water - is it still effective in this state?

TIA

[saddad]

 :-\

[Spookyville]

I know, what can I say? total newbie  :)

[Barnowl]

I've put tape round several of our raised beds - it seems to work quite well (so long as they can't get in underneath the woodwork!)

Here's a bit of the spud bed

[Barnowl]

The problem is that the copper tape, even in bulk, is quite pricy, so I plan to move on to flattening coppper pipes.

[Spookyville]

well on gardners world they are screwing 15mm copper pipe runs aorund the raised beds. so in the pic above they are actully fixing lengths along the top of the plank to create a copper barricade around them, then traeting in the boundary with nematodes..

does copper just apply to slugs tough or snailes too? and does the copper continue to work (whether tape or pipe) once it starts to go green etc..?

[Larkshall]

When copper goes green it is called verdigris and is highly poisonous, I believe arsenic is derived from it. It could be that the slime from the slugs reacts with the copper and starts to form verdigris, an industrial chemist might know.

When you see something recommended, stop, ask yourself "who stands to gain?". Don't always take other people's word for it.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Verdigris is basically copper carbonates. Some of the compounds produced are  slightly soluble in water so it is possible to get copper poisoning off it. Arsenic is a totally different metal.

[Larkspur]

There have been several tests done on copper barriers for slugs. I remember one done by Pippa Greenwood on Gardeners World inparticular. Basically though they all came to the same conclusion. Copper does not deter slugs though there is a strong urban myth that says it does.

[quizzical1]

I believe that there is supposed to be some sort of chemical reaction between the copper and the slime on the slug/snail, which is similar to us chewing on a bit of aluminium foil and it touching a filling....i.e. it sets up a small electrical charge, which the slimy critters don't like, and it makes them recoil from it.

Whether that is so effective when the copper starts to corrode (go green), I'm not so sure.

Copper salts in the amount that a gardener is likely to pick up from this shouldn't be harmful.

[Spookyville]

When you see something recommended, stop, ask yourself "who stands to gain?". Don't always take other people's word for it.

So Monty Don has a substantial holding in copper pipe suppliers now then?
 ::)

 ;D

[honeybee]

I put a load of copper rings around my hostas last year and they still got munched to the ground so it  wasn't one bit effective for me  :(

[Spookyville]

maybe the smaller slugs living in the soil coming up at night?

in certain areas such strawberry pots etc the copper tape we used (as well as nematodes for inside the container) worked 100% for slugs. just a few smails managed to get past the defences somehow...

[Larkspur]

Spooky, if you were using nematodes in addition to copper what makes you think the copper had any effect at all?

[Spookyville]

common sense. are you stating it did not or that copper does not have any effect at all??? Enquiring minds want to know.
I know my garden, I know how may slug/snails(quite a lot) we have - trust me the copper stopped the surface travelling ones touching the areas we protected because the year before we had nothing in place and suffered.

[Larkspur]

Spooky find the unbiased tests which have been done on copper as aslug barrier. It does not work. Niether do eggshells, grit, vaseline or any of the other so called barriers. The myths persist because people want to believe them.

[Spookyville]

do you have links to the sources of these unbiased tests?

[Barnowl]

The only bed we had slug problems in was one without copper tape round it,  but last year was our first so that's hardly conclusive. Will continue taping up and report results.

PS All our beds are raised - may be relevant

[greenscrump]

Copper pipe seems to have kept the slugs off the sunflowers in the garden......




hope you can see the slime attack around the outside of the pipe, sunflowers still flourishing, prior to this they were getting munched on a regular basis  ;D

[jennym]

Hey greenscrump, nothing like a picture to demonstrate a point! That does look good, I'm off to look in the garage to see if I can find any bits of copper pipe  ;D