Hello Jim,
Have you
thought of testing some applications of caffeine on the medium of some of your
plants. (Incidentally, coffee
grounds alone, as a repellent around the perimeter of your growing area or your
greenhouse, may only have a marginal effect.) But tests using 1% and 2%
solutions of caffeine seem to have been effective as a repellent and to kill a
significant percentage of the infectation.
Here is a
link to an article about using caffeine on orchid snails in Hawaii:
http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/Features/pesticides/caffeine/caffeine.htm
And here
is the study done by Hollingsworth:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1465&context=icwdm_usdanwrc
There are
also a couple products on the market containing iron phosphate. Products
containing iron phosphate include:
Sluggo and Escar-Go! Slugs eating
a small amount of this product cease feeding and apparently, eventually starve
to death. There is a brief commentary about iron phosphate here:
http://www.plantea.com/slug-baits-coffee.htm
Good luck. Hope some of this helps to curb or end
your problem.
Regards,
Paul Mitchell
Tampa, FL
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