This year I've had no slug damage on my brassica plants. Last year I
mulched that plot heavily with coffee grounds because I had my pumpkins
there. I'm wondering if the coffee grounds eliminated the slugs last
year and they haven't had a chance to repopulate the area. Needless to
say, I'm going to continue to use coffee grounds to see if they stay
away. We've had an incredibly cold and wet spring. Except for the second
week of may and then I put my toms, eggplants and peppers in and then it
got cold. Argh.
Deborah Turton
Nature magazine had an article about caffeine and slugs, snails.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020624/020624-8.html
Frank
Behalf Of Tony and Moira Ryan
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2003 8:07 PM
To: OGL@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: slugs and coffee grounds
> Deborah
> See my recent posting on my apparent success repelling snails from
> hostas and other susceptible plants by using a coffee ground mulch. I
> really begin to think there may be something in this mollusc
treatment!!
Deborah Turton wrote:
Deborah
See my recent posting on my apparent success repelling snails from
hostas and other susceptible plants by using a coffee ground mulch. I
really begin to think there may be something in this mollusc treatment!!
Moira
> Deborah Turton
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
Carol,
it's not anything physical that deters the slugs when you use coffee
grounds. It's the caffeine in them that will kill the small slugs and
deter the big ones. So the coffee should help by deterring the mature
slugs and killing off the next generation.
Deborah Turton
To elaborate on Deborah's post -- one of the sites recently posted about the
effect of liquid coffee on the slugs and snails said that the caffeine
disrupts their nervous system.
Incidentally, I tried both coffee grounds and liquid coffee as a deterrent
for the squash bug. No effect on the mature bug -- I really wasn't
expecting much, but was sorta hoping the adults would find the odor or
texture of the grounds not to their liking. I check the plants every day,
scraping off egg masses, but I do miss some. Sure enough, a few days ago, I
spied some newly hatched nymphs skittering about. I sprayed them with the
stale coffee, hoping that the caffeine might affect their much tenderer
bodies. They curled up; I waited to see if they would uncurl and begin
moving but they didn't.
Pat
