I am also experimenting with rolling the mesh loosely around the base of some of my younger fruit trees. Copper scrip is expensive, I haven’t purchased any more even though I know it works under the right conditions.

Whilst sulphur dioxide emissions from power stations have dropped enormously in Western Europe since the 1980s, there is still enough in the atmosphere for rain to contain traces of sulphuric acid. Ammonia is also used as a fertilizer so doesn’t seem to hurt the plants too much (although can burn them a bit). If I go out at night I will usually see 2-3 slugs oozing circles around the bottom of the barrier but not crossing it. It’s that time of year when slugs and snails creep out of the woodwork ( quite literally) and look for sources of food after their winter hibernation. I propose that the snail slime itself (with its acids) on contact with copper tape reacts with the copper alloy (IF… and that’s a big IF… it’s thick and contains enough copper alloy) to create a foul taste or suffocating effect similar to that of copper sulphate, hence the slug or snail gets a bad taste and then turns back to get a breather.Get a 9V PP3 battery, and clip, the one with two wires and the clip (maplin sell them) and stand the battery behind the pot, with the wires connected, 1 to each ring. I’m using some right now – just got to double up/cover the line of holes that the scaffold poles would go through – so much cheaper. Environmentally friendly gardeners who attempt to deter slugs and snails from devouring their vegetables with eggshells or copper tape are wasting their time, according to a study by the Royal Horticultural Society. The wires draw no current until a slug causes conduction so the setup lasts the growing season and beyond.

I put a couple of revolutions of that crinkly tree wrap paper around the base of the trunk, then a layer of (not too tightly wound) copper mesh, and hold it on with some of that green gardening velcro so I can loosen and adjust with growth.Sugar, dried yeast, flour mixed to a thin slurry in cold water – work quite well but better in drier weather. If you live in a city there’s probably more chance of copper tape having this effect than if you live in the countryside. The foliage seemed unaffected, but all else had failed so now its established fingers crossed for springtime. As members of the Mollusca group of animals, slugs and snails use Hemocyanin proteins in their blood to transport oxygen around their bodies ( whereas we mammals use iron based Hemoglobin).

Jones added: “Slug pellets do have their problems but they have been tested for safety and when used to their manufacturers’ instructions the risks are quite minimal. Each roll of Serrated Copper Snail Tape is approx 3cm wide and is either 5m in length, which will go around approx. Regardless of exactly why it works, I would recommend copper mesh to anyone with a slug problem amenable to a physical barrier who isn’t too concerned about the aesthetics.When I want to use them again I remove the oxide by dropping the rings in a bucket of water with a tea spoon of citric acid. Slugs and snails hate copper, but this tape features a serrated edge, which adds another line of defence against even the most determined snails and slugs. According to the RHS, some slug species have clear benefits for gardeners, such as the leopard slug, which eats fungi and rotting material, helping recycle garden nutrients.

Mildly electrocuting those pesky gastropods sounds nice doesn’t it after what they’ve done to your poor plants? This raises the planter but also creates a copper barrier over which the slug or snail has to cross. I invested in some adhesive copper strips (before reading this post) and conducted my own test this morning – with dew all over the copper strip. Jeff Gillman, one of the Garden Professors, commented “When I’ve tested copper the slugs seemed to have a slight preference for not crossing it, but would if that was what they need to do to get where they were going.I wouldn’t waste my money on copper tap because my experiment shows it could only have a very temporary effect if any. Out of interest, did you try stacking two lengths of the smaller tape (so the test 4 product would result in a 5. Snail slime / mucous contains two acids: glycolic acid and hyaluronic acid – both of which have been used in skin care ( for smooth skin and anti-aging) and the development of modern day products. Last year I conducted some tests to disprove the value of egg shells, pistachio nut shells, hair and chilli powder in preventing slugs and snails from eating our plants, all were easily crossed by snails.