According to today's Daily Telegraph, European Union bureaucrats have stated that using coffee grounds to deter slugs is illegal. Using anything that has not 'passed through the system' to officially be called a pesticide risks prosecution for the gardener. The list of forbidden items stretches to salt, eggshells, tea leaves, water infused with garlic and other methods used by gardeners throughout the UK who only wish to fend for their plants by the most innocently organic means. Presumably EU politicians have total disregard for gardening in a way that is cheap or organic or that might even be fun (anyone with a sadistic streak who has poured salt on a slug will know what I mean).
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| Brussels politicians must wake up to this kind of thing every morning |
Dr Andrew Halstead, principle plant scientist at the RHS has warned that gardeners using coffee grounds as slug repellent could risk heavy fines - although the chances of prosecution, he suspects, are remote.
It's endlessly fascinating to hear what comes out of people who have a total disconnect from reality. EU politicians have total disregard for gardening in a way that is cheap or organic because they probably have other people to do it for them and then they claim the expenses back.
ReplyDeleteThat's typical. They make lots of strange decicions..
ReplyDeleteHow do they have time to create such stupid laws? Don't they have other more important things to work on? Beer traps are great slug killers. I guess you could have someone drunk puke or pee the beer into a dish, but just pouring it in straight is much less fragrant.
ReplyDeleteThank god I'm an American and can blast the buggers any way I please.
ReplyDeleteIt's lunacy. I also thought these laws were created by people who pay people to garden for them - or probably they just live in hotels.
ReplyDeleteI have had very poor success with beer traps unfortunately. I only recently realised that slugs like bitter whereas I have been plying them with cheap lager.
This is insane. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. I could understand it if some research had found that all those coffee grounds were somehow harming the environment. (Like in the US when they had to tell people to stop flushing unused pills down the toilet because so many weird drugs started showing up in the drinking water.) But this sounds like you really do need a license (a chemical license!) to kill slugs. I hope Soren (Flaneur Gardener) with his method of spearing slugs or cutting them in half with scissors, doesn't run afoul of weaponry laws. -Jean
ReplyDeleteHi Jean
ReplyDeleteWeapons weren't mentioned in the article. Brits can be eccentric though when it comes to saving and appreciating animals, much to the amusement of Le Photographe who would like to shoot and eat everything on sight. Doubtless there is a save-our-slugs society lurking somewhere out there, campaigning for them to have designated road crossings (as there are for hedgehogs in some parts of these small islands).
Hmm…it’s not 1st April today….this sounds like an April fool’s joke! Seriously?? I use slug pellets in my garden, cheap and cost effective, and they do work, but if I was a slug I think I would prefer drowning in beer, somehow it sounds more humane and it is probably a much quicker death – if we are talking animal welfare. The slugs that evade the slug pellets in my garden I usually pick up and throw in my compost bin where they can gorge on the waste until the council come and collect my green waste – after which they get a rather quick death in their incinerator. I have not had much luck in deterring slugs in my garden, so I have opted for getting rid of them instead.
ReplyDeleteIt's no joke Helene, here's a link to The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/property/gardening/no-coffee-for-slugs-8081384.html.
ReplyDeleteApparently it is fine to use coffee grounds on your garden for other purposes. I have already prepared my defence: "It was a mulch, Your Honour."
That is just crazy...of course government makes no sense..i always think it is tied to money and backing chemical companies...they lose if we use organics...
ReplyDeleteJust read the article. It's only illegal if used as a pesticide, so you'll be alright if you invite the slugs round for a coffee morning then ?
ReplyDeleteThat's right, it's fine to invite slugs round for coffee if that's your intention, just it might kill them and then your party will be over quickly.
ReplyDeletethis is quite funny as we started to use coffee ground at work (sir harold hillier gardens), simply because we loose so many plants every summer, especially if it is a wet one like this year. we have to make sure the gardens look great for the visitors and were on the search for a successful organic way of getting rid of the slugs and snails. so is the government now checking every single garden, sneaking under bushes hunting coffee ground? that's quite funny!! imagine men in suites crawling on knees trying not to get too muddy. sorry - those people don't have the slightest idea about nature, plants or slugs. but i like it. makes me laugh...
ReplyDeleteHi Janine, maybe they have special mirrors, you know like the ones they use to sweep under cars to check for bombs. Are the coffee grounds working, out of interest? I think Starbucks were offering free bags of coffee grounds for gardens at one stage, presumably in an effort to make us believe they are the new eco warriors. (I hate Starbucks and their coffee but that's wandering off topic.)
ReplyDeleteI went to visit your blog and couldn't get it to translate unfortunately. Being British, of course I am incapable of speaking any other languages!