When my family moved to this house in 2005, we discovered a large snail population. This Spring was very wet (18 inches!) and that seems to have caused a population explosion. I have put out "snail bait" several times, but I still have enough snails to defoliate a small ornamental plant overnight. They've taken a huge toll on my marigolds and petunias & a few zinnias. I have now noticed very small snails, so they've obviously been reproducing. I smash them when I find them, or throw them into the street for the birds to get or cars to run over. I've never tried the bowl-of-beer method. I try to get up all the fallen leaves in Fall to remove their food source & protection, but they live on. Any suggestions of other snail-ridding methods?
Crushed shells or sand are mentioned here WTXDaddy: http://www.gardenstew.com/about6457.html Wood ashes are mentioned here: http://www.gardenstew.com/about1712.html Hope this helps, // Frank
I've tried beer and it works well as long as you have the stomach to empty the traps daily. Egg shells didn't work too well for me...maybe I didn't use enough. I've heard that they will not cross copper and know of a gardener that used to line up pennies around her Hosta's to keep the slugs and snails away. Also grapefruit rind halves upside down in the gardens are a good place for them to hide, but again you have to empty the traps daily. I've also heard that slugs and snails hate hair, sawdust, ashes, and coffee grounds. Plants that repel snails include Azaleas, basil, beans, corn, chard, fennel, grapes, ginger, holly Parsley, pumpkins, rhubarb, sage and swedish Ivy. Natural predators of snails are Blackbirds, ducks, frogs and toads, lizards and snakes. Hope this helps!
vinegaroon One thing I know will eat snails is a vinegaroon - mastigoproctus giganteus: http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg365.html http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjec ... roon.shtml These critters are huge, can emit a smelly odor (like vinegar, or rotten mayonnaise) and they catch their prey & suck their innards out. My wife had 2 in her science classroom a few years ago & I dropped a few snails in there & next thing I knew, we had empty snail shells! These bugs are very large and scary-looking. I have not found one up here on the caprock of the South Plains, but 1 county South of us, a friend's family finds them often & they give them to us. I've been considering asking her to bring me some of these to put in my garden. But I doubt they can survive the Winter here, unless they hibernate. My mother used to dump coffee grounds in the flower beds when I was a kid, but I thought it was to ward of insects generally. I've often toyed with the idea of getting my hose-end sprayer out & spraying coffee or tea on everything. The bitter, acidic taste should surely deter some plant munchers, right? I don't drink coffee or tea myself (never liked coffee & Dr told me to avoid tea due to a kidney stone I had years ago), so I seldom have coffee grounds or tea leaves available. My wife drinks coffee, but only on weekends. Maybe I ought to buy some cheap coffee, brew me a pot & spray it on the yard, then spread the grounds out. Our soil is alkaline, so I wonder if coffee or tea would acidify it? I've also seen pecan shells bagged commerically for bedding cover, but never used it, because I don't like coming in contact with the shells myself while working in the garden. I have 2 large pecan trees in my yard, so I have plenty of shells. I reckon, I could crush them myself & spread them out. Copper is too valuable these days, or I'd consider laying copper tubing around my beds.
WTxDaddy, be careful of importing critters into an area where they are not common. There is always a chance of them becoming a problem to local critters, becoming the dominate one and eliminating other local ones that are beneficial in their own specific way. There is a reason some critters are in one place but not another.
critters toni, There are a few small canyons (with lakes in them!) about 2 miles South of my house and I understand, vinegaroons live in them, so I don't think I'd be necessarily "importing" a species foreign to this area. It's just that I have never seen a "wild" vinegaroon up here on top of the caprock (it's basically a huge mesa). But since most of the land up here on the caprock is cultivated for cotton & milo, I wonder if farming and soil tillage doesn't prevent the vinegaroons from living up here. It's just as hot & dry up here, but the canyons do get more moisture, as rainfall flows into them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llano_Estacado http://www.llanoestacado.org/
My avatar picture shows my favorite anti-snail-and-slug-weapon. In addition to that, I use anti-snail-pellets two to three times in spring/early summer, and I hunt for slug eggs all around my plants when weeding. We also have some of these: They must be emptiede every day, and the bait changed a couple of times a week. A three-inch-thick stripe of course salt all around the garden should stop new ones from getting in, but I haven't tried it. I want my hedgehog friends in here, you see.
I finally got two blooms on my Clematis :-D Trouble is, when I went out to look at them the enxt day, something had eaten the petals and now they look very forlorn. It's only a new, small plant and the blooms were fairly low down on the stem. Since it's probably slugs or snails, I think I'll try the pennies idea. Thanks!
Teddy-I find that Earwigs are the creatures that eat my Clematis blooms. You can try rolling up a wet newspaper and putting an elastic around it to hold it together. Leave overnight and dispose of it each day. Do this until you are not catching any more.
I've noticed lots of snails this year because of so much rain.This is the first time I has found them when I'm weeding and working the soil.I have frogs and toads and I smash all I find.
