Copper strips
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Copper strips
- From: c*@jps.net
- Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 23:06:49 -0800
I'm a believer in copper strips to foil snails and slugs. I don't know
about zinc-copper, but I used copper strips for years. However, there are
a few caveats.
1. The strip has to encircle the area you want to protect completely. I
had a raised bed vegetable garden, about 4'x20' that I tacked the copper
onto. If there was a break in the copper, even 1/2" wide, the slugs/snails
would find it and crawl right into the bed.
2. Similarly, if you have a plant that overhangs the strip, the critters
will find it and crawl into your bed that way.
3. Don't buy the cheaper brand that doesn't have a "perforated" edge.
It's purpose is so that you can bend back the edge, creating a lip. What
happens is, the snail crawls up the side of the raised bed, encounters the
copper, decides it can cope, and keeps on crawling up. However, it really
hates the sensation, so it pulls its body away from the copper, having as
little contact as possible--but still greedy for your plants, it keeps on
working its way up the copper strip. When it encounters this folded back
edge, however, it has no choice but to crawl upside down (are you
visualizing this?) and it falls off onto the ground because it's barely
holding on anyway.
4. The copper loses it's effectiveness, they say, as it gets dirty. When
I moved from my community garden plot, described above, to my house with a
"real" garden--I cut up my copper into small pieces and made rings with it
(stapling it together) to put around individual plants. It has been a less
than successful technique, and probably due in part to the dirt the copper
has accumulated these last several years. Also due to overhanging leaves.
I spent a very long afternoon once with a collection of remedies in one
hand and a collection of snails in the other (figuratively speaking). I
tried sawdust, ashes, beer, and the copper. And I sat and watched what the
snails did. Only the copper was effective, and only as I've described it
above.
The copper stripping was 100% effective in my community garden plot. My
other remedy, used in my current garden, when I can remember where I put
it, is a spray bottle with diluted ammonia (50-50, but it could be weaker).
Whenever I see a slug or snail I just zap it and that's the end of it. It
dissolves on the spot, just like when you put salt on them (which you don't
want to do as a regular practice in your garden). Nice for reaching into
areas that are hard to reach, too.
Mostly now I just use Deadline. I use pellets too, sometimes, and my cats
have never touched them. But cats are finicky, where dogs aren't.
I've asked this before and never had an answer. I've noticed that when I
put seedlings out, the snails head straight for them. However, if the
plant grows and ultimately reseeds itself, the snails never eat those
seedlings. Any ideas why?
Carol
Oakland
