I also add mine to the compost and to my vermicomposting bin. This year I
tried something different as well. I read that coffee grounds deter slugs.
Since I have trouble with slugs around my hostas, I dumped the grounds
throughout my garden (fairly sparsely), especially around the hostas. I
had no slugs whatsoever this year. Whether this is coincidence or not I'm
not sure. I'll try it again next year but in only a few of the gardens and
watch for the results.
Julie F.
Ontario, Canada
yes,
I've saved my seedlings from slugs using coffee grounds. It was an
accidental byproduct of spreading coffee grounds last fall over about
half my garden. this spring there weren't any slugs around to eat my
seedlings. You can also just spread them on top of the ground when you
put your seeds in. This should kill or deter the slugs by the time your
seeds come up.
Deborah Turton
Deborah Turton wrote:
Well folks
It seems as though coffee grounds must now join milk as a type of safe
pest control for organic gardens. We seem to be getting more and more
confirmation that the grounds are actually doing their job. The thing
that amazed me was the freedom from damage of the leaves in both my
Hosta and Arthropodium clumps last year, which extended right through
the growing season even though we must have had one of the wettest
spring/early summers on record. Every year before that, damage,
especially to young leaves, had been tremendous and disheartning, with
scarcely an untouched leaf to be seen (Even though I set traps and
caught quite a quantity of snails and a few slugs).
Last spring I set no traps at all and apparently needed none..
One place where it suddenly strikes me I could use the grounds much
more is in the glasshouse, where there are always a few snails and slugs
causing trouble until tracked down and disposed of (No doubt my use of
live compost in my potting mix occasionally imports a few eggs). I have
tried putting the grounds as a water-retaining mulch on the larger pots,
but hadn't specifically envisaged using it for mollusc control. (Large
sudden flash of mental illumination!!)
Carol
Your remark about the nematodes that kill all sorts of molluscs makes
me think we would not like them here. Our native fauna includes several
rare and mostly primitive snails and slugs which are almost never seen
in gardens but live in harmony with the native vegetation causing no
serious damage. They have a hard enough life already with imported birds
which fancy them and I am sure killer nematodes would hasten their
extinction. The snails which trouble us in the garden and probably the
slugs too (though I am not sure of this) are imported from Europe and we
would be quite glad to see _them_ gone. Mind you I do know that the odd
ones which I find in winter nestling in things like chard and celery
leaves are worth leaving to feed blackbirds and thrushes and lure them
away from digging up my beds for worms. I always knew thrushes are fond
of snails because of their habit of banging them on a stone to break the
shells, but one day last winter I saw a blackbird swoop down on the bean
patch find a smallish snail under a leaf and take it on to the nearby
lawn, where it proceded to dig the titbit out of the shell with its beak
pretty effectively. Since then I have left the winter snails (mostly
small) alone that I find on the chard etc unless they are inhabiting
leaves I want to eat! Those snails I still find (in lessening quantities
each year) nestling under the covers on my compost heaps I still dispose
of though, as there is obviously no way the birds can find and make use
of them.
As so often with running a working garden ecosystem successfully one has
to think in terms of balance and compromise and protection for really
vulnerable plants rather than total extinction.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
I certainly hope my daughter will reconsider. She like me (and most of us) is perfectly happy with slugs and snails, but this killer slug is driving her up the wall!!!! She is so ethical and refuses to put a plant up for sale if there is the slightest chance that there could be even an egg of a killer slug in the potting mix...
Carol
Kimm wrote
I've not seen that coffee grounds help with slug control as I've seen slugs
crawling over them in the past. However I have sprayed the buggers with cold
caffinated coffee and wached them wriggle and squirm and vacate the area not
to return for the season. USDA
researchers in Hawaii found that cold caffinated coffee was very effective
when sprayed on plant leaves in deterring them buggers.
Me
That's interesting. I had just about no slugs in my garden last year
after I had added coffee grounds the previous fall. I didn't do the area
where I put my pepper plants and there were slugs there until i added
coffee grounds. I'll pass the cold coffee trick onto my friend.
Deborah Turton
I thought I'd sent this, but it didn't show up in the digest, so pardon
me if you already seen this.
Deborah
Kimm,
I know you've seen slugs crawling over coffee grounds and my friend
hasn't had luck killing her slugs with grounds, so I've been thinking
because I have no slugs after using grounds. I think the difference is
that I put whole bagfuls of grounds over my mulch. I cover an entire
garden bed at one time. The slugs have no where to go and hide in my
mulch. The liquid that runs through the grounds and then my mulch
apparently has enough caffeine in it to kill the slugs. I also put it on
in the fall and that probably kills the slug eggs buried in my mulch.
My friend drinks coffee and so dumps a few grounds on her garden
everyday. My guess is that the slugs just go around her grounds and by
the time she's covered an entire bed, the slugs are back to where she
put the original grounds.
Deborah Turton
> I know you've seen slugs crawling over coffee grounds and my friend
> hasn't had luck killing her slugs with grounds, so I've been thinking
> because I have no slugs after using grounds. I think the difference is
> that I put whole bagfuls of grounds over my mulch.
Hmmmm..... must talk to a cafe or two.
