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Summer here was a good one for strawberries, but those little sluggie blighters seem to like them just as much as me.
I know you're meant to put a cosy bed of straw down to protect your precious pink berries, but in this damp climate, the straw often goes soggy, and delicious strawb's go mouldy. So
back to the drawing-board
The electric fences I knew as a kid (no, not cruel parents, just raised on a cattle farm) were fun to play with, and effective with large ruminants, but not much use against slugs (unless exceptionally large).
So, I propose a scaled down version, raised on tiny little pegs about 5mm above the soil, with enough voltage to dissuade slimy raiders in the middle of the night.
But not enought to fry them. Eeeugh!
Heliciculture
http://www.helicicu...p?section=technical
Andy of Australia has done some experiments to determine the most effective electrified snail fencing. [jurist, Aug 03 2006]
[link]
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Loving the principle, but I can't help thinking these would take far too long to set up to be of much value. My preferred method of slug-annihilation is this: |
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Take a small plastic bottle, cut a hole in the side about a third of the way down, about an inch and a half in diameter. Then you just put some beer in it. If you don't want to waste beer put milk in the bottom, and push the bottle in the ground so the hole is more or less level with the edge. The disgusting sludgy mix of drowned slug and milk that results is quite encouraging. |
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<imagines slugs balanced on the wire, just like birds on the power lines> |
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Even without electrification, a ring of bared copper wire laid on the ground around your garden plot is said to deter snails and slugs. The snail's slime supposedly chemically reacts with the copper to create an unpleasant sensation. But see [link] for the electrified snail fencing that Andy of Australia has experimentally developed. |
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Why not a litle line of rock salt instead? They would never make it across. |
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//Why not a litle line of rock salt instead? They would never make it across//
But that implies you have a completely slug-free plot of land to begin with. |
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//Why not a litle line of rock salt instead? They would never make it across// |
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Extensive use of salt will eventually kill the plants. Electric fencing obviously has more entertainment purposes anyway... |
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What if, instead of an electric fence, you had some sort of catapult, like the springy part of a mouse trap, but one that is really wide and goes around your garden. Every time the snail or slug walks onto it, it springs and launches the critter into the air and away from the garden. Then it automatically resets itself! |
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What if, instead of an electric fence, you had some sort of catapult, like the springy part of a mouse trap, but one that is really wide and goes around your garden. Every time the snail or slug walks onto it, it springs and launches the critter into the air and away from the garden. Then it automatically resets itself! |
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I've read about something like this in an electronics magazine. I believe it involved some kind of signal that deters slugs/snails, broadcast from a ring of copper.
However, it may just have been electrified, combining the 'electric fence' and the chemical reaction ideas... |
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