Gardeners up and down the UK are being urged to take action as September starts and the weather turns cooler again.
It’s been an intense summer for gardeners, with long periods of sunny, drought conditions with no rainfall making it difficult to grow anything without copious watering, an issue compounded by the hosepipe ban in several areas of the UK.
One upside of the hot weather has been a reduction in slug and snail damage. While the hungry molluscs have still been active at night, fewer rainy days has meant less of them chomping through your prized fruit and veg.
Unfortunately, that won’t last, and with September coming around already, cooler weather and more rain are expected to mark the start of ‘slug and snail season’ in earnest.
That’s because as the weather turns wetter and the nights draw in, slugs and snails will have optimum conditions to spread through your garden and what’s worse, lay their eggs for next year.
Slugs will mate and lay eggs through the autumn to make even more slugs and snails for next year.
But gardeners are sharing a top tip which can help control and repel slug populations before that happens – instant coffee.
Cheap coffee grounds aren’t just a way to perk up your morning routine, but they can also hand everything growing in your garden a boost too.
Caffeine is toxic to slugs and snails and some garden experts therefore swear by it as a method of pest control.
Word of warning, though, coffee is a very painful method for slugs to die, worse than salt, so don’t apply coffee grounds directly to any slugs or snails (stamping on them would be much quicker and less cruel).
Instead just sprinkle the coffee grounds onto soil and around raised beds or pots during dry, clear weather, and then when it does rain, the slugs won’t cross the coffee, thereby protecting your precious flowers and crops.
In studies, coffee grounds were found to reduce slug and snail numbers by between 50 and 90 percent.
The coffee won’t have any harmful effects on your plants either, in fact some studies have found that caffeine actually boosts plant growth.
Gardening blog Tea and Coffee says: “Coffee grounds contain a chemical called alkaloid, which is poisonous to slugs. When slugs ingest coffee grounds, they suffer from severe dehydration and eventually die.
“For these reasons, slugs will avoid areas where coffee grounds have been sprinkled. While coffee grounds may not be the most effective way to keep slugs out of your garden, they can be a helpful tool in deterring these pests.”
