Believe it or not, this comes from the University of Hawaii and was discovered by accident while trying to do something else entirely. Before somebody jumps all over me about caffeine being a chemical - take a deep breath and think about this.

COFFEE KILLS SLUGS & SNAILS. Make very strong caffeinated coffee. Mix half and half with water and put into a trigger or compressed-air sprayer. Spray on plants and the ground that snails & slugs travel on. As they move over the treated areas, they take up the caffeine through their pseudopod (foot) and it gives them heart attacks in 72 hours.

Cheap coffee works as well as the more expensive sort. I use espresso because it's more finely ground (works better in my machine). I also run the water through the grounds more than once to extract as much as possible - I'm filling a 4 gallon backpack sprayer.

My snail problem is worse in my daylily field than anywhere else, but the Hostas look better this year for this solution, too. Cheers for an elegant and simple solution to nasty critters.

hmmmm, the slug fest is done here in my gardens for the season but this is worth a try next year! Thank you

I didnt know slugs had hearts!!! I will try this next year as well!!

PS -- you should send this tip in to Trish!!!

Did you do this? Did it work?

I didnt do this Janet but Kate did (above). I am gonna try this next year -- worth a shot and I hate coffee anyways so I dont feel like I am wasting anything good to drink!!!

I'm not gonna waste good coffee on the little buggers, but my worm compost has a high coffee content. Probably not much caffeine left in it by the time they process it, though, come to think of it......

might be worth a try.

I heard they really, really like beer and if you fill a tuna can with room temperature beer, that will kill them also. They dive in and they drown because they cannot get back out of the can. If you have no beer yeast and honey will work but you have to mix it properly.

http://www.weekendgardener.net...

susan

Hi Just read your article and thought you would like to know of a brilliant slug protector. Recently a lady gardener recommended a new device to control slugs and snails called the slugbell she has used it and found it to be absolutely brilliant at controlling them I have just ordered 6 of them to place around my flowers and vegetable garden ,here is there web page www.slugbell.com they use both Organic or Normal Metaldehyde bug pellets and that the small amount of pellets needed will last up to three months.!!! as they don’t dissolve in the soil and are pet i.e. Cat , Dog and wildlife Safe Brilliant for pet owners , I will try anything to keep my garden looking how it should whilst protecting natures cycle.

That is very, very interesting!! Very pretty and colorful also, like little flowers. I like the price too, this is wonderful news and you have already tried them out? Beets walking around the yard everyday throwing out bait
Thank You so much isabella

I like the coffee idea. We always have some coffee left over from the day befor. We can start collecting it to spray on plants come spring. Hope the deer don't like coffee with their hosta.
Stush

Thanks for the tip!

Caffeine repels slugs but it does not kill them. Unfortunately for it to be really effective you need much larger amounts of caffeine than is in your morning coffee. You can, and some people do, place Used Coffee Grounds around you plants as a barrier. It's great organic nitrogen so it will fertilize them as well. Free UCG are available to gardeners from Starbucks. It's a company policy. Just call up your local Starbucks and ask them to save some UCG for you. Then show up with a 5 gallon bucket and take it away. Remember that in order for this to be truly effective you are going to have to replenish these grounds often. Rain will leach the caffeine out of them and the barrier will be less effective. Still it's a good thing to try and it will help your plants.

Steve

Just chimeing in here.I plan to offer this as a Tip of the Day as soon as Hostas peek out of the ground here.Probably late April.
I have cut down on the slug population here by drenching the ground around the emerging plants.
As soon as I see the hosta eyes I treat with Amonia diluted 1 cup amonia to 8 cups of water. The sluggs are not in the armys they use to be here. Snails are another matter.
I also treat Ligularias as they emerge. Slugs on those leaves are really damaging.

Yes, the coffee grounds are very good for the soil, it adds acid. But not enough caffeine to kill a slug. If you brew highly concentrated coffee and spray it on the plants it will only kill the babies and it takes 48 hours.


http://www.paghat.com/coffeesl...

Just wondering what you guys do in the Spring to prevent them for becoming a problem?
They start out so beautiful and with each passing wk they seem to get bitten.

The thing that works best for me is something called Deadline,slug & snail bait. In the evening just one drop every foot all around the flower beds and where ever you see slime trails. (don't get it on your stones or concrete because it will stain them) Next morning they are all dead. I do it about once a month to stay on top of things.

I bought Sluggo, because I heard it was safe and natural. I've tried coffee grounds and egg shells, but they didn't seem to deter the slugs much. I've heard about the beer bait, but I couldn't bare the thought of a tuna can full of half-dead slugs. Yuck!

It was already pretty late in the season when I tried Sluggo, so I don't know how much of it was just the natural winter die off. I will be trying it again this spring. The slugs seemed to LOVE the brunnera and hucherella even more than the hostas, and I found slimy trails pretty much everywhere.

Some people have problems with the squirrels eating the sluggo, they love it. If your hostas have thick leaves they won't bother them, they are considered slug resistant but stuff with thin leaves like the brunnera and hucherella they will eat them for dinner.


http://www.tomatoville.com/sho...

Ugh, Susan, that's terrible news!

The slugs are in prime squirrel territory. I was wondering what happened to all the bait. I bet those darn squirrels ate them all!