Slugs and coffee
There are a million and one uses for coffee – in addition to drinking the stuff, that is.
You will probably be aware of the use of coffee grounds as a sort of ‘mulch’ for gardeners (and in fact some coffee shops give their old coffee grounds to their green-fingered customers) to give their plants a bit of a boost.
However, as reported in the Independent recently, there is another use for coffee in the garden.
Slugs.
Yes, you heard right.
It has become apparent that snails and slugs are not very keen on the stuff.
Several organically-minded souls use coffee grounds as an alternative to slug pellets, to attempt to keep the creepy crawly pests at bay.
In case you are tempted to do likewise, however, please hear this note of caution.
It was also reported that using coffee in this way is in breach of EU regulations.
In fact, the Royal Horticultural Society has warned its readers of this fact.
Although the caffeine deters slugs and snails (and can kill them), this use of coffee is in contravention of European law and could result in heavy fines in principle.
Of course, in practice, there may well be significant problems in enforcing these rules but it is better to be safe than sorry.