By Jasmincats
United Kingdom 
On the subject of sand.I thought about using cheap builders sand (coarse stuff) over weed suppressor where strawberries will be planted..this idea is to deter slugs and snails from crossing the sand areas...will this work?...I understand about no salt in the sand..but will lime particles (if present in the sand) hurt vegetable plants much / at all?
14 May, 2014
Answers
I wish our molluscs had read this, grit of any size does not stop them from getting to my plants.
14 May, 2014
nor mine Owdboggy. also the copper strips don't seem to deter them much either.
14 May, 2014
Coarse grit seems to work better for slugs. Probably not a good idea around strawberries though.
14 May, 2014
Only if you empty them out first lol.
14 May, 2014
I use builders sharp sand instead of the more expensive horticultural sand and haven't had any problems. I'm not sure that there's sufficient amounts of lime in builders sand to harm your plants. The quality of sand for the construction industry has to conform to pretty strict regulations. Can you imagine what would happen if a high-rise concrete building was built using sand with contaminants in it?
If you're in any doubt about the quality of the sand then put it in a bucket and rinse it through with water using a hosepipe.
Sharp sand is ideal for keeping slugs and snails away, they don't like to cross gritty surfaces. Make sure that you use sharp sand though and not the soft sand. You might find that the rain will wash the sand into the soil over a period of time and will need to be replaced. So you could use very small stones instead.
14 May, 2014