Coffee grounds can stop slugs and snails (Image: Alex Evans)
The sun may be shining this week but they say it changes when the sun goes down – and for gardeners, the annual battle with slugs and snails has already begun by May.
The voracious molluscs will stop at literally nothing to strip your garden of everything you lovingly planted, chewing through strawberries, raspberries, tomato plants, potato foliage and every type of flower in their quest to sate their seemingly unstoppable hunger.
But gardeners are sharing a top tip which can help control and repel slug populations – instant coffee.
Coffee sprinkled on a strawberry plant (Image: Alex Evans)
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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 ave 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.”
But regardless of their efficacy in controlling unwanted slugs, coffee is good for the soil.
BBC Gardeners’ World’s Sue Fisher explains: “Coffee grounds have been the subject of a huge amount of anecdotal advice with mixed results for a wide variety of uses – as a slug, pest and animal deterrent, as a mulch, and as a fertiliser.”
She added: “Coffee grounds are an excellent compost ingredient and are fine to apply directly onto the soil around most garden plants if used with care and moderation. Coffee grounds contain nutrients that plants use for growth. The grounds are relatively high in nitrogen and also contain potassium and phosphorus, as well as being a source of organic matter.”
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