Reuse plastic bottles for slug collars

Most gardeners have a slug or two to contend with. Here at Chez Green, we have an army of them, who love our clay soil and thick hedges.

We don’t often buy bottled water, but we do occasionally indulge. This year I decided to put my old bottles to good reuse before finally disposing of them in the recycling centre. I made lethal looking slug collars / deterrents to protect my seedlings.

The theory is that with sharp edges, a slug won’t bother dragging its sensitive under belly across the spikes to munch your prize crops.

I was a little dubious, as our slugs seem extremely tenacious, but as you’ll see from the video, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the results.

In the past I’ve tried crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, gravel and neem oil. The neem oil was successful, but requires reapplication and making into an emulsion; which, at the end of a busy day here at Zero Waste towers, wasn’t always very appealing.

I’d been toying with the idea of buying copper tape or the plastic protective barriers, but when I saw the prices, I realised it was time to come to my senses and find a reuse for something I already had in the house.

Unlike beer traps, my recycled plastic bottle fortresses mean I don’t have to waste good beer on my slugs and neither do I have the grisly task of disposing of the corpses afterwards. Deterrents, rather than drowning, appeal to the Buddhist in me.