How do I stop slugs and snails eating my plant? An all too common question and one we were faced with one Sunday morning in August 2021.
Our garden is pesticide free and, as we have pets and grandchildren, we also prefer not to use beer traps or similar since they require constant attention. As we have a rambling garden and tend to move plants around we do not add anything to the soil. Previously, we had success with copper tape around planters and pots but this didn’t look very attractive and was impossible to use in flower beds.
We therefore wanted something convenient to use in beds and planters. It had to be re-usable, weather resistant and have good environmental credentials. It also had to blend into the background and be maintenance free.
we wanted a simple product, convenient, re-usable, resilient with low maintenance - that blended into the background”
John Wright, designer.
The core values of Slug Fence revolve around a simple philosophy:
Functional design, friendly to the environment and useful. The key requirements driving the design are:
The carrier provides the mechanical structure and durability of Slug Fence.
It is accurately manufactured from 100% recycled polypropylene in high precision mould tools to ensure the individual carrier segments snap together and the hinge functions correctly. The hinge also helps people with limited dexterity as it can slide together and slide apart.
Our material is recycled at source; meaning the material we use comes from the waste discarded when every plastic moulding is produced and usually ends up in landfill.
We use 99+% pure copper foil usually used to provide electronic shielding of sensitive electronic components. The foil is conductive, has a self adhesive backing and has no coating.
While our foil is approximately 0.02mm thick it still provides the same effectiveness but uses less than 5% of this valuable commodity than is used by solid copper deterrents.
This dramatically reduced weight also lowers the fuel burden for the carrier significantly.