How to protect the weak and defenceless.. .
Here follows a description of how to prevent the strongest in nature from defeating the weaker,
and how to use clever engineering to win the war against the slugs that want to eat your defenceless beauty.
The following picture shows the leaves of my poor little sunflower, that was being eaten by slugs.
The lower branches were already totally gone, and I feared for its life...
Slugs come out at night in great numbers, and it seemed an impossible task to protect my sunflower.
Slugs don't seem to have natural enemies, as Hedgehogs only eat Snails.
Fortunately, the following experience could be used to create a very effective protection:
#1 Slugs cannot tolerate electricity. Even only 9V can be lethal.
#2 Slugs don't like zinc.
#3 Slugs don't like crawling up a wall with more than 90degree angle, as dew and rain doesn't make such surfaces wet.
These facts can easily be combined.
#2 and 3 are realized by making a fence from an old zinc tub, cutting out the bottom.
Next step was implementing #1, by mounting an galvanised wire as electric fence, isolated by some blocks of wood.
This is precision work, as the wire must be firmly fixed at only a few millimeters outside the tub surface, and must at
no time make contact to the tub surface (as that would short out the electric voltage).
The wire must be at least 5cm above the bottom, to avoid that slugs use plants outside the tub as bridge over the wire!
Then a high voltage must be connected. The easiest way is just using a 9V battery.
Here the Minus is connected with a wire to the Tub, the Plus is connected to the electric fence wire.
Some cover against rain is mounted as well.
Placed around the Sunflower, as protection against the Slugs:
From that time on, no leaf-eating by slugs occurred anymore!
The slugs that crawled up and touched the electric fence, just fell off,
and lay shocked on the ground for some time before crawling the opposite way.
A few very stubborn small slugs that tried to crawl under the fence, ended up dead, like this one:
1 month later:
Some of the leaves are permanently damaged, but the Sunflower is growing a lot!
This proves that love and protection are the best conditions for a handicapped individual to thrive and develop!
And here our little sunflower spreads happyness, and brightens up our day!
this page is made with n073p4d 2