Coffee Slugs

Clearly they are not enough to protect their favorite foods.

Coffee slugs.

Well if coffee is good at killing things then surely the advice to use coffee grounds to kill slugs or repel them is accurate right. As if keeping the snails and slugs away weren t enough adding coffee grounds to the soil in your garden is actually extremely helpful and nutritional for it. Other species of slugs might behave differently. The myth that coffee grounds stop slugs is busted.

A neurotoxin caffeine in as little as a 2 percent solution will kill slugs according to the usda researchers findings. The caffeine in coffee has been found to keep slugs and snails at bay. Many coffee shops offer customers grounds from their machines free of charge and spent coffee can be used as a mulch or to. The introduction of caffeine in their system also stimulates the mucus production in their body making them slower.

To be fair i only tried this with 3 slugs and they were of one type. A cup of instant coffee contains 0 05. Pour a pot of coffee directly on the garden soil. Either way when these snails and slugs catch one whiff of the caffeine they ll immediately crawl the other direction.

I read other anecdotal advice. Coffee grounds are already recommended as a home remedy for keeping slugs and snails at bay. Robert pavlis of garden myths set up his own experiment with slugs and coffee grounds and he says the coffee grounds don t even slow them down. A cup of instant coffee contains about 0 05 caffeine and brewed coffee has more.

How to get rid of slugs and snails with coffee according to the united states department of agriculture s agricultural research service in hilo hawaii concentrations of as low as 0 01 percent caffeine repel slugs. There is a chance you may be fined for using coffee to get rid of slugs the home made solution contravenes regulations on pesticides say officials. This one is a big fat maybe. Besides coffee does not alter the ph of the soil nor has any side effects on the plants.

A lot of horticulturists believe that the mere smell of coffee can be a deterrent to the slugs and snails. Especially in a large garden with a lot of slugs and snails it will not be sufficient to put out a daily portion of coffee to repel them.