Coffee or tea with bush snails - Orchid Board

Rothrock42 · #1 03-02-2023, 05:33 PM

I've seen a couple of discussions recently about using caffeine for a coffee soak to kill bush snails -- those tiny little ones that can't be lured out by other dastardly killing means.

Most of the posts say to search "coffee" or "coffee snail" to find out more. When i tried that I mostly found more posts that say "search to find out more."

So I wanted to ask specifically about the technique.

First I assume coffee is mentioned because it is readily available to most growers and is not all that toxic in its normal form. Another common household-source for caffeine is tea. Is there any reason for or against using tea? Has anybody done that?

Obviously we would want the soak to be at room temperature and not fresh off the boil.

I saw that some people are concerned or had some damage to the roots from the coffee and it is suggested to first soak the roots in regular water to get them hydrated so they won't try and take up the coffee. Then do an hour coffee soak and then do a rinse soak to remove any coffee. The idea that after an hour the bush snails would have absorbed lethal (to them) amounts of caffeine.

Is there any reason to think using tea would be any different? Better or worse for the roots?

Finally I'm not quite clear on the concentration. If I need a gallon of water to cover all the roots how much coffee (or how many tea bags) should I use?

Lil Duck · #2 03-02-2023, 05:46 PM

Tea would probably have lower concentrations of caffeine meaning that you would have to soak for longer or use more tea in the same amount of water. Alternatively, you can buy pure caffeine powder online, I imagine consuming it would be unhealthy.

estación seca · #3 03-02-2023, 05:50 PM

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I've read green tea has more caffeine than black tea. Beyond that I don't know what to say. Whenever I find very cheap undrinkable coffee on sale I buy some to use killing snails. I brew it very strong.

My Green Pets · #4 03-02-2023, 07:56 PM

Can you buy caffeine pills and dissolve them in water, to have a precise dosage?

Leafmite · #5 03-03-2023, 02:24 AM

The original article that I found on the discovery of caffeine working to kill bush snails is no longer free but here is another that is:

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/v...icwdm_usdanwrc

In the original experiment,they were trying to get rid of non-native frogs in Hawaii and found that the caffeine worked on the bush snails.
I used instant coffee crystals both times that I needed to get rid of bush snails as I would rather not waste good coffee on the plants, as fond of them as I am. I have not seen any root damage on the orchids or the other plants due to the coffee. Bush snails, on the other hand, have eaten all the roots of orchids, neatly killed some of my soil-based plants and even eaten entire miniature plants...so there is that.

---------- Post added at 02:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:12 AM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by estación seca

Whenever I find very cheap undrinkable coffee on sale I buy some to use killing snails. I brew it very strong.

My luck, someone would use it to brew the morning coffee. I keep a jar of instant coffee crystals on hand...just in case.

Lil Duck · #6 03-03-2023, 09:29 AM

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Rothrock42 · #7 03-03-2023, 10:52 AM

Thank you everybody I think I've developed a plan.

rbarata · #8 03-03-2023, 01:01 PM

One expresso (35 ml / 8 gr of coffe beans) mixed with one liter of water makes wonders for me.

Leafmite · #9 03-04-2023, 12:40 PM

Good luck! One dose did it both times I had a bush snail infestation but I always checked daily for a few weeks to make certain that they were gone (just in case some snails/snail eggs somehow were missed). Do treat ALL the plants, even if you do not see snails on the others.

Rothrock42 · #10 03-07-2023, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leafmite

...Do treat ALL the plants, even if you do not see snails on the others.

That was so prescient. My original plan was for some new orchids I bought off the web and I kept them separated in the kitchen before doing the coffee treatment.

But then I was looking at a Den. nobile-type that had recently put on a new grown and noticed that despite a dozen roots there were no green tips and the top most growth point was chewed down. Sure enough I found some little snails in the media. They were already in the greenhouse!

So yes I'll now need to dunk 'em all. I've got about 200 or so. Do I need to include vandas with no media?