Alternative to slug tape?

Rahbob

Hi All

This is my first post!

Last year I used copper slug tape around some pots to keep the slugs and snails away from my more tender vegetables. This seemed to work reasonably well.

This year I am planning to build some raised beds for even more vegetables and would like put some slug tape around them, however the tape is fragile and rather expensive and I would like to find something more cost effective.

Does anyone know of a cheaper alternative to copper slug tape?

Thank you for your help

angelavdavis

Vaseline smeared around the edges (although be careful in case any soil gets onto it to form a bridge).

I read a new method this morning with raised beds to place guttering at the top of the raised bed and then brush the inside of the guttering with oil (see http://organicgarden.org.uk/gardening/start-here/preparing-the-ground)

Never tried it, but its a new one by me!

elsien

Buy a big roll off ebay and cut it into thinner strips - works out cheaper than the slug tape in wilko's and such places, as I've found you don't need it as wide as they sell.
Get hold of some copper wire - any old electrical cables or leads you can find or get off friends, strip the copper out and use that.
If you can get away with putting it round individual plants rather than the whole bed, cut a section out of a plastic bottle or milk bottle container, so you've got a circle shape, wrap your copper tape round that and use it to encircle the plant. Like the copper rings you can buy, but a lot cheaper.

Sally_A

Slug Pubs - take a 2 litre bottle of pop, cut out the middle bit, and fix the top end with archways cut into it, into the bottom area, fill with old lager or beer slops from the pub or a local home brewer.

ginvzt

Last year I bought copper tape that is used for modelling (building models) Just checked on google, it is called copper track.

Like this

annie123

Old or new copper pipes, I remember watching Monty Don use them on gardeners world around a raised bed.

cootambear

gravel around the beds
or sadly, go out at night with a torch
slug hunters catch 200 of the bstads at night
oh for a voracious slug eater in the uk
the hedgehog just isnt up to the job

cootambear

annie123 wrote: »

Old or new copper pipes, I remember watching Monty Don use them on gardeners world around a raised bed.

beware, copper has hit extreme highs on the metal markets. you may have other visitors than slugs...............

annie123

cootambear wrote: »

beware, copper has hit extreme highs on the metal markets. you may have other visitors than slugs...............

Good point didn't think of that!
I had my tatties in car tyres stolen from my front garden 3 years ago, note in it's place saying "I was hungry, sorry" I would have given them some for free if they had asked.


I have 1" gravel on a bed in the front garden with pots, snails still got to my lettuce in tubs.
Maybe sharper gravel needed?

Rahbob

Cooper tape is a fraction of the price of the slug tape! I'll
definitely be giving that a go.

Thanks

valk_scot

Slugs don't like seaweed much. I've had some limited sucess with this and it's good for the sort of slugs that live underground as well. Gather seaweed from above the current high tide mark ie dead seaweed, nothing attached to rocks etc, then wash the excess salt off by leaving it spread out on a supported mesh or old cracked bread crates (the baker will usually give you these free) and letting the rain wash it off or hose it off. You can then either add it to compost in a 50:50 mix and let it rot down another couple of months before using it, or (my preference) use it as a mulch on beds in late autumn and winter, cover the bed and let the worms pull it down over the winter. This last works especially well for potatoes. (Seaweed is a traditional potato fertilizer.)

I can't gather as much seaweed as I'd like, but even a bag or two is a useful addition to the compost bin and I do think it is a deterrant. You could also lay it as a barrier around the edge of a bed I suppose but I've not tried that. However you use it though it must be well rinsed. Salt isn't that great an addition to soil.