Slugs - can I prepare for battle during the winter?

There's a very good page on slug control here: Slug Control

 

Check out the link below for many ideas on how to get rid of slugs.

Slug & Snail Remedies: How to Get Rid of Slugs & Snails ~ Slug Off

I want to put copper tape around my new raised bed for next year, does anyone know if the copper tape needs to be a certain width?

 

If you want a cheap solution for a copper barrier, if you can get hold of some old TV coaxial cable, strip the outer insulation and then remove the insulated center conductor you'll end up with a 'tube' of woven copper braid. Hammer or squeeze it flat and fasten it to your raised bed, pots or whatever.
Note : Some coax has tinned or silvered conductor and/or braid and this won't work. You need plain copper.

 

That sounds like a good idea, and I wonder, if you can't get hold of some cheap/free coax, would this work?

Solder Remover Wick / Mop - Width 2mm - Length 3m by: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Reading your post immediately made me think of cheap de-soldering braid. Expensive desoldering braid probably wouldn't do the job if the goal is to have a plane copper barrier, as the more pricey stuff has various additives to make it work better at mopping up molten solder, whereas the cheap stuff is just copper braid.

 

That would work clueless but it's a very expensive way to do it at £1 per metre and the braid isn't as broad.
If you look on Ebay or Amazon for coax cable you should get it at half or less that per metre. You don't need the high quality expensive stuff - cheap and cheerful will do.

 

I've just had a quick shuftie on Ebay for 'copper tape', most sellers seem to be charging about £1 per metre, but if you search carefully you get it at almost half that.
MULTI PURPOSE SELF ADHESIVE COPPER FOIL TAPE 6MM | eBay

Still not as cheap as coax though.

 

Pests

When I noticed the flowers of my winter pansies in shreds,I knew that slags are more then active.
My solution is :small containers of a yeast solution,buried up to soil level,near my plants.(much cheaper then beer traps!)
By the morning I found a dozen of drowned slags in each bowl.
I'm confident my pansies will thrive from now on.