Re: [CH] cheap slug barrier
Tantrika (hummer13@earthlink.net)
Sat, 03 Jul 1999 23:01:34 -0700
well this begs a lot of questions, at least in terms of what green brought up.
Byron has a good idea here in general, the roughness of the surface laid
flat around young susceptible plants might indeed deter slugs incredibly.
I'm an organic gardener, and very intense about sustainable and non toxic
methods, but I don't agree with green56's reasons for worry because of a
few reasons.
First off if you were to use this around plants to prevent slugs it would
only be for a very short time till they grew hale and hearty enough on
their own and then I think you would be inclined to remove them anyway for
aesthtic reasons.
Green's fear that fiberglass (they aren't made with asbestos anymore) is
unwarranted. Fiberglass is silicon, therefore inert, and it won't hurt the
soil anymore than glass would. The only reason fiberglass is dangerous is
because you can breath the fibers into your lungs....
In roofing, they are bound in I guess tar, so it's even less of a problem.
As to the Tar/Oil, well I seriously doubt that a few weeks on the soil
would lead to great deterioration of shingles, or even much leakage,
because shingles are USED to prevent WOOD from DECAY from WATER. :)
for years and years and years and years and years.
The same principle should apply to shingles on soil, wood and dirt are
essentially the same thing in different densities.
I seriously doubt that chemical decay would occur if you placed a flat
collar around your young plants until they got 7-8-9 inches high on the
soil, shingles would take a LOT more time to decay, even on soil to warrant
any worry about chemical contamination of the soil. Of course you could
always call the roofing/shingle makers but they would probably ask...why
are you asking us about gardening???.
I worry more about my driveway's decomposition into groundwater than I
would ever worry about a few shingles to keep out the slugs, in fact this
sounds like a great idea, and sandpaper wouldn't work, it would get too
mucky after a watering or two.
And fiberglass is inert.
I could be wrong, and am willing to learn if I am, but so far this sounds
reasonable.
Organically Yours,
Joy Williams
http://www.dancinghummingbird.com/joyw/garden699