Dear Neighbor,
Slugs…the bane of my garden existence. You could find me on summer nights with a flash light and a weapon (anything that could smash slugs) following the slime to their hiding places or current feeding spot. Yelling my victory cheer as I smashed yet another slimy enemy, my husband would laugh at me; he thought it was cute.
There is nothing cute about this war on slugs. It has been a humiliating and losing battle and I am sick of fighting slugs. At one point, I had given up using real flowers in some garden and decorating spaces; I decided to invest in high quality silk, instead. Sad, I know, but slugs had cost not only my dreams of a pretty garden, but too much money. Until the next year and the insanity would begin all over again as I dared to hope things would be different.
Perhaps it is me and not the slugs that have lived under a rock, but I recently discovered a natural deterrent and even killer of slugs: coffee grounds. How could I have not known this?
Coffee grounds are perilous to slugs because caffeine can attack their nervous system and paralyze them. Slugs can get slower?? The good news is that many bugs do not like coffee grounds and though they have a pinpoint sized brains, they know enough to stay away from things that will kill them. Ok, except for beer. Let’s not go there.
It doesn’t take a lot of coffee grounds to keep slugs away. Just a sprinkling around the base of the plants will do it. However, since we reap a healthy amount of grounds each day, I’m taking no chances. I’ll load those plants up! We are saving them in a large bucket for spring.
Discovering a truly people and animal safe, recyclable and effective natural slug killer is pretty exciting. I don’t know about you but my hopes of a slug free garden just got a lot perkier.