Copper seems to be the current gardening cure all, you can get even get gardening tools made from this magic metal. Slugs and snails allegedly will not cross a copper barrier - even to get to a juicy Hosta! Our Garden Centre sells special copper strips with slits in them so that you can link them into a large perimeter fence to keep the slimy peril at bay. Is there any chance that something so simple could possibly work?
While doing some snail photography I made some interesting observations.......
I put a snail close to a copper strip 'fence' enclosing a very succulent looking Hosta. The snail wandered out of shot away from the Hosta quickly and I had to lift him back into position. 
He then started to head towards the copper
fence and began to slither up it very confidently. I kept clicking away expecting to document the destruction of Hosta 'Majesty' in a few moments. As the snail reached the top edge of the copper fence I was relieved to see a sudden and quite dramatic reaction from the bold mollusc - it retracted it's head away from the copper and it tentacles went frizzy - just as though shocked! It then slithered down to ground level in a haze of foam and hid, motionless in it's shell. After a few mintues I noticed that the snail had cunningly rotated itself away 
from the copper and was making good it's escape as briskly as a snail was able.
A few hours later I was photographing a smaller snail in the same location and witnessed the same behaviour again - it looks to me as though there may well be something in this copper barrier idea.
When I can afford it I'll try the copper tools to see if they have any benefits over the regular kind.
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