Snails and small conches are the worst pest I have right now in the garden. It is a serious problem because they kill the crops.
Also with the new padding system you have to be careful because it seems that they like it a lot and are going to reproduce a lot.
There are different methods, products and techniques to combat them. Today I come to tell one technique to prevent snails from climbing trees or tall-stemmed plants and ideas for improving and using it in more ways. It is a sweep to prevent them from going up to the plants.
The idea is simple. Snails seem to have an aversion to copper and are reluctant to cross it. So we will just roll the trees with copper to prevent them from climbing. You don’t apply electricity or anything. it is simply that they do not like the contact of copper.
This method does not kill the snails, nor does it make them disappear, you will have to go to remove them, but it prevents your trees from filling up and being eaten.
This is how I had a small grafted plum tree.
To mount it we only need copper. It seems that copper repels snails, they do not like contact with this metal. I have used 1,5m of 6mm cable that I had left over from the installation of an oven. It is better to use cable with many wires to be able to cover a lot of area.
We peel them and ready to use. Another option I want to try is copper adhesive tape, which is a sheet of copper that comes in the form of a tape as if it were masking tape or electrical tape, and with self-adhesive. (I’m waiting for it to get to me and I’ll do tests)
And here we can see the final result. About 4 centimeters of tree covered. I have tried to make it firm but I did not press the tree much.
You have already seen how the tree was, I cleaned it of shells and left them on the ground so that they could go back up and check if it really worked.
And the barrier is a wonder
Not one passes
Now you just have to remove them, but not one has happened.
More tests
Many questions arise that I will answer as I see how it evolves.
- Will it lose its effect over time when it rusts?
- Will it strangle the tree if we don’t remove it?
- Are there other cheaper materials with which we can achieve the same effect?
- Can this technique be used but superficially?
- How does self-adhesive copper tape work?
At the moment after a week it is still effective.