snails

[LadyBee]

I'm thinking of doing some beer snail traps as the snails seem to be taking over at the moment and I feel the need to fight back.
What do I do with the dead snails? Can they go in our compost?

I put them in the compost. Slugs are exceptionally fond of beer traps [evil ha ha ha ha ha emoticon]

Beer traps are great, leave as many as you can. I leave the dregs in the can too as an extra one as they go in there too.

We have resorted to slug pellets too this year as well as the 'good' stuff

I was wondering about snails and slugs too. We have a gardener in at the moment doing a revamp and we are having 2 foot high wooden raised beds for planting veg. I want to stop the snails and slugs climbing in. I was wondering if I could put something like gravel or stones around the top wooden rim as a deterrent or would they just slither over that? I don't want to use pellets and thought I might be at an advantage with the height of the beds. Any thoughts?

Copper strip around the rim would work well IlanaK.

There was study done in Sheffield a number of years ago showing that gardeners who use slug pellets typically have exactly the same number of slugs and snails as those who don't! So I've never really been convinced of their utility (and the poison is dangerous to dogs cats and children...).

Raised beds already offer some deterrent and a gravel strip will also deter, but you could also try copper tape (which gives the pesky molluscs a mild electric shock if they move on to it) around vulnerable plants and raised beds, though it is a bit expensive, however it lasts a few years.

If you aren't squeamish (I am a bit but DH isn't), you could go round on a wet day and pick them up to inhabit a snailery (a bit like a wormery), basically a plastic pot with holes in the bottom; you feed the slugs and snails on vegetable waste, and their waste product which runs off from the holes in the bottom is a rich plant fertiliser. You need to stand the whole thing in a bucket of water though to make sure they don't escape. At least then they're working for their supper...

Last year I lost my entire pak choi crop to the little bastards blighters, but in a sense it was a sacrifical crop because they left my lettuce and spinach etc alone pretty much. So that might be worth a try too...

Forgot to mention that if you do put out beer traps, don't forget to put twigs in, so that any friendly beetles that fall in won't drown but can climb out again...

Also, back to original question- I compost all dead snails (and living ones too sometimes) that I can find, but I wouldn't do it if they have died after eating slug pellets...

The pellets we have aren't eaten. They dry up the slugs as they go over them. Made of wool or something? We had a massive decrease in them in the first attempt. On the second one now.

Copper tape is good but found it didn't always stick which made it v expensive

nymphadora - they sound good, not heard of those before. What are they called?

Those pellets do sound good - and thanks for your advice everybody, sorry I haven't been back, we were out today.

I'm a bit sceptical about the snailery though, I've chucked snails into a bucket that had water in it and seen them swim out. They're sneaky those snails, I think they'd plot for freedom.

If you put twigs in the beer traps what stops the snails using them to escape as well?

Our raised beds certainly suffer less from snails than the rest of our garden.

Right, off to find some lager.

No idea where from and I ran out (well its dh job!)

Snails are clever, we experimented on a group last year with a circle of coffee grounds. Some tiptoed over it at a narrow part but the majority pushed a dead one & used it as a bridge. Don't trust them!

Hello,

I have a hobby gardening site and have nine natural ways to get rid of garden snails and slugs which may interest you. There are photos and simple instructions for each solution.

www.sustainable-gardening-tips.com/garden-snails.html

There are many different tips and some work better than others depending on your climate and the design of your garden to name just a couple. At this time of year you will need to have some clever ways to stop snails.

I really don't like commercial baits as they can cause death and / or illness in other innocent pets, birds and animals.

Please have a look and choose from the nine options and try to eliminate them in a sustainable way.

Kind regards
Robyn
(Gardener and Permaculturist)