BS: Getting rid of snails

Subject: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 03:44 PM

We were having our winter clean up of various plants today. When we removed a dead plant from a pot in the front garden we found it was covered in dozens of snails! I have looked up what to do with them and found lots of tints and hips here but knowing you Muddy lot are all keen gardeners and greener than a green thing in greenville I thought I would ask for advice here as well:-)

Now, here's a funny thing though. In the back we have lots of slugs. I have no problem at all dosing them with salt and pellets but somehow snails are a lot cuter and I can't bring myself to perform the acts of mass destruction I do with their unshelled cousins. Does this mean I am predjudiced against the homeless do you think? :-D

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: gnu
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 03:46 PM

Nuke em!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Midchuck
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 03:56 PM

Mais, monsieur, c'est le dejeuner.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: gnu
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 03:59 PM

Vraiment. Avec beurre.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:03 PM

May we?

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:12 PM

Did they look like this?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: gnu
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:21 PM

They haven't made them since 1992? Why not?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:31 PM

Eat them?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: ard mhacha
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:36 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: ard mhacha
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:39 PM

That got rid of them, do what I do, feed your garden hedgehogs, I don`t have a snail or slug, feed the hedgehogs with cat food and you will encourage the wee wonders to keep your garden clean.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:40 PM

The best way to get rid of both slugs and snails is to sink a shallow bowl into the dirt and pour in some beer. An inch will do. They come from all around, climb in, and die happy in that beer. I would put bowls about 2 yards apart if you're doing a whole area. You can leave the bowls out for a couple of days--they don't care if the beer is flat (and that way you're not wasting any more beer on them than absolutely necessary!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:48 PM

I tend to throw them over the hedge into next-door's garden.   Of course, I recognise that they are probably homing snails and will return in time.

I've never been able to persuade a hedgehog to stick around. If I put catfood out I just get more cats, and they bully my cat, who is a mild-mannered and naive creature.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 05:33 PM

Give them names.

Hold them in your hand and see how cute they are, and learn how they love to have their tendrils tickled. (down boys!) ;0)

Pick up a tiny baby snail, then realise you're about to orphan him.

Realise that you too could 'come back' as a snail, or yes, even a slug.

Ask yourself would you want to end up covered in salt, meeting an excruciating death, or drowned in beer until your so blubbery that no one could even find your tendrils! :0)

...then fill your garden with flowers and shrubs that they don't like, sit back and watch it all grow, and know that should it ever turn out that The Creator of this world is really a slug, or a snail then you are so going to be in for a gold medal when your time comes.

:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 05:37 PM

Nooooo, don't kill us! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: gnomad
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 05:43 PM

Watching this with interest. I imagine I am unusual in having an indoor snail problem (bedroom, since you ask) they're relatively small, but numerous, and I could happily do without them.

I know it's the damp that attracts them, but can I move a 250-year-old flat to higher ground? The neighbours would fall into the harbour.

I can't see me following Sibe's ideas for snail control; woodash, soot, and broken eggshells sound like a bad idea to a chap with bare feet. Cedar sawdust, though, wonder if I can find a local supply.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 05:49 PM

Here's a photo of me gently clearing the garden of snails and slugs.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 06:03 PM

Nooooooo!

Rappy, you can't do that! lol


Here in England, we're far more civilised

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 06:12 PM

Lizzie - If I could come back as slug or a snail AND the creator of the world turns out to be a slug or snail then I would be on par with the creator and rid the world of all ridiculous humans:-)

Until then I'm just off to nuke a few seal pups and eat pony stuffed with baby deer... :-D

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 06:37 PM

Oh well, I'm with you on the ridiculous humans, but...hey, go easy, I'm still recovering from Bambi losing his mother so early on.

Now come on, David, you can't fool me with all this macho, caveman talk....

I know that you're developing a very bad case of Snail Love from this thread.

Why, it's only a matter of time before you'll be..............

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 07:28 PM

Do I detect the birth of an Escargot Cult?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 09:21 PM

Well, maybe. I do live in Southern Idaho and we've been considered pretty backwards at times. But we do know about airplanes -- they bring fire retardant in the Summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: maeve
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 10:50 PM

On our small Maine farm we've tried several snail and slug control methods over the years. The most dramatically effective approach for us was a combination of hand picking, habitat control, and the increase of predators (wild birds, toads, and frogs) as a direct result of good land use practices. Beer traps can be effective in a small area, but we were dealing with too large an area. Our bantams have learned to love hunting for both snails and slugs as well as other insects.

Recently we've observed the appearance and dramatic increase of snails in our area. The same combination of controls is effective. We've also added a container of one of the iron-based baits to our options. We'll test that next spring.

I did a quick search and offer three links as starting points:

Clear overview of some control methods

Possible dangers to pets from beer, baits, etc. (Grain of salt warning)

One kind of iron-based bait

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 10:54 PM

Actually there are few slugs and snails in this part of the country. Seems like high desert country, with very low humidity, just isn't all that friendly to the critters.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 10:59 PM

There are wild ducks in the area, but they stay in the bottom of the back yard in the creek, they don't come up into the yard. The dogs would be a hazard if they tried it. Beer has worked well and it's cheap. It also won't harm other animals. (If I could get those voles out front tipsy I might harm them, though, if I could catch them).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: CamiSu
Date: 06 Nov 08 - 11:52 PM

Maeve--

Chickens are good for more than snails. I once watched one catch and eat a mouse! I was astonished.

We were supposed to talk farms last month, but I wasn't sure until I got home who it was was the farmer.

CamiSu

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: GUEST,Gurney
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 12:03 AM

Sage's system with beer works, and the results are cleared up by Thrushes (do you have them?) and Hedgehogs.

Snail pellets (poison) also kill Thrushes and Hedgehogs, lingeringly, when they eat the dying snails and slugs. I won't use pellets under any circumstances.

The beer must be new-ish. Secondhand won't work.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: maeve
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 12:03 AM

LOL CamiSu- Yes; chickens will eat all sorts of strange things. I'm happy to have our bantams for slug/snail duty. They also clear out crickets, grasshoppers, grubs, and Japanese beetles. Colorado Potato beetles are refused, as are tomato hornworm larvae although our first bantam flock liked the hornworms.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 03:35 AM

Love the idea of chickens clearing them up - Mrs el Gnomo would love to keep some but at present we live in a high density area with only a small back yard. Maybe when we move.

Very few thrushes but we do get blackbirds - I believe they eat slugs and snails but I haven't witnessed it. One theory I heard about the increasing slug population was the increase of magpies. Because maggies reduce the population of other birds, such as blackbirds and thrushes (sat on every greep spray?) the slugs increase. Dunno if it is right.

Looks like hand picking, beer traps, copper tape and iron phophates in combination will do it. Don't think we will be bothered much till spring now but I will keep all this in mind. Looks like I will have to kill the little blighters in any case! Sorry Lizzie but my love of nature does quite extend to gastropoda.

Thanks all

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 04:45 AM

>>Looks like I will have to kill the little blighters in any case! Sorry Lizzie but my love of nature does quite extend to gastropoda.<<


Poor little fella :0(

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 08:26 AM

That's a bit of MY plant! Cheeky little b*****d. Where's me shotgun...

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 09:04 AM

There are several ways I've discovered to get rid of voles. If you want a new lawn, you can use explosives. Nothing else works except zinc phosphide -- and be VERY careful with it, 'cause it IS a poison and you MUST clean up any above-ground bodies you find before other animals get to them.

You can also pump a lot of gasoline down the holes and light it. This will also have some fairly interesting results, the least of which is getting to know the local firefighters and police.

Some suggest setting snap traps crosswise in the vole tunnels, baiting them with peanut butter. You have to cover the hole you made to set the trap, though, or the voles abandon the tunnel.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 09:19 AM

Do you mean voles or moles, Rap? Surely it is moles that tunnel and damage lawns isn't it? Don't voles live by the riverside and in fields? Maybe not in your neck of the woods!

Jasper Carrot tells a wonderful story of him sitting up all night with a torch and a shotgun to catch a mole coming out of his lawn. Trouble is he was in a wheeled office type type swivel chair and when the shotgun went off he found the meaning of 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction'.

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 09:34 AM

Voles. We also have moles, but they're not as pesky or prevalent.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 09:35 AM

Will you men PLEASE stop!! Aaarrggghh!

"That's a bit of MY plant! Cheeky little b*****d. Where's me shotgun..."


David...look, that little fella has a wife and 17 children to feed, and he can't get Snail Social Security, because every time he tries to stand in line and get some free food, some 'orrible lil' human tries to zap the living daylights out of him!

Do you know, we have a book for sale in The National Trust shop, where I work called....wait for it...

50 Ways to Kill a Slug.. (!!!!)

And...cue song: "......

50 Ways to 'How COULD YOU!"


Sadly, it's *hugely* popular. Whenever anyone buys a copy, I give them my special 'look'....the one that makes them shrivel, even more than the slugs and snails they've got lined up for shrivelling when they get home.

There is no job harder in this life, than to be a snail or a slug. Humans want to eat you, nuke you, turn you into cream, make you implode, dehydrate you, give you alcohol poisoning..It's DAMN TOUGH!

The Good Things That Slugs Do

Snail Cream - Yes, really..

Snails, The Healers

Just be careful, David, because, they're learning how to fight back.

Uh Oh! :0)


Now I'm off to do some Vole Research, turn Rappy's opinions around and...Save The Vole!

:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:37 AM

Way of the world I'm afraid, Lizzie me old gastropod guard. They eats me greens - I nuke them. I would expect the same if I went and pinched a tigers tigerlily, a lions lettuce or a sharks seaweed. So I don't:-)

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 11:18 AM

Interesting links, Lizzie. I didn't visit them all, but there is food for thought. I have a story I'll share later about my father's interest in slugs in the Pacific Northwest (where we had a varied and large population). I have a slug magnet on my freezer.

The little ones we have here in North Texas are destructive to leafy greens in the garden. The chemical pellets are an abhorrent and too destructive. I use beer because it deals with the problem locally in the vegetable garden. The slugs and snails elsewhere are left alone to do their thing in the yard biomass.

I've thought about putting out snap traps, but I'm afraid I'd catch native lizards who also live out there. Maybe setting one close to the compost to see if I can snag them there, one at a time, as the lizards slow down and go in for the winter is the way to do it. I know the voles are interested in seeds that fell near the house, and I don't mind that they are eaten but I don't want the population explosion in the garden leading to a house invasion.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 12:57 PM

You locate a vole tunnel and dig out enough of the roof to put the trap in it perpendicular to the walls. Then you cover the hole with a board or something. Only the voles will be caught.

Can you make your own slug cream by gathering up a bunch of them and running them through the blender? Or is there some secret to preparation that I'm missing?

As I noted, we don't have many slugs or snails here because it's dry -- we average only 17 inches of precipitation a year.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 01:38 PM

"Oh! My Boy!! My Darling Jeremy! Will he *live* doctor?"

"It's gonna be touch and go for a while ma'am, but we're doing all we can. Seems he went into the garden of Rappy The Vole Catcher. We've done all we can to tell our little voles not to go near there, but we've heard they love to try and outwit him. You know what youngsters are like......"

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 01:47 PM

Bloody 'ell! Is that a vole? The ones here are tiny little things that the cat brings us as presents. One of them would eat our cat! No wonder you want to get rid of them, Rap. Where are you, Australia? The land where everything can kill you? :-D

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 02:33 PM

Now, don't get him started on about annihilating kangaroos, David, or else I'll have to get Crocodile Dundee in to sort you both out! :0)

I have a really dainty little cat, called Tilly. She's like a ballerina and soooooo pretty, with black markings around her eyes that make her look like an Arabian Princess...but she's a far more cold blooded killer than James Bond.

'Pussy Gadzooks!' they call her, out here on the street.

She can fell a squirrel with one bite to its neck, catch bats, water rats, sloworms, and the hours I've spent catching mice and taking them to a Safe House, giving them a new disguise an all...

Yeuch!! How did I end up with such a Cutie Killer?

Heck, when I was little, I used to bring worms in from the garden when it rained, to keep them dry. And now, I have to clean up after Pussy Gadzooks! :0(

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 05:15 PM

"Where are you, Australia? The land where everything can kill you? :-D"

Not quite everything! Most of us are quite harmless.

We don't seem to get many snails or slugs, perhaps because I don't (shame on me I know) have a vegetable garden. I deal with slugs by sprinkling a little salt on them - they shrivel up. Yuk. But it gets rid of them. It would probably work for snails too, but somehow they don't seem as offensive as naked slugs so I don't worry about them too much. Is it true that that ducks can keep snails under control by eating them?

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 08:57 PM

Ooooooh - I am so embarased:-( Sorry JennieG. I know lots of lovely Ozzies who would not do anyone any harm. I was refering, of course, to the fauna and flora of your lovely country which appears to be rather interesting to say the least:-)

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 09:57 PM

Apology accepted, David. *grin* Over the last couple of years Himself and I have been fortunate enough to visit some of Canada and Alaska.....and when folks there find out we are Ozzies, the usual reaction is "I would love to go to Australia, but I'm afraid I might get eaten by the spiders/snakes/fierce Tasmanian devils/crocodiles/drop bears/wombats/pretty red flowers/whatever". It's all Bill Bryson's fault.

They haven't met our snails and slugs, or they would really be worried.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:15 PM

Well, out here in Idaho we do have Gargantuan Slugs. These are about the size of an Aussie land train, carnivorous, spit a neurotoxin that causes you to turn orange and all your appendages to fall off, and leaves a slime trail that leaves the land sterile and barren for years after its passing. Here is a picture of some Idaho landscape devastated by the passage of these Slugs over a century ago -- as you can see, vegetation is only now returning and those who venture into the area (they are standing in the road in the picture) must wear protective clothing.

The voles here are slightly larger than a standard-issue mouse, but with a short tail. They eat the roots of grasses and other plants, causing damage to lawns and gardens.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:22 PM

What did the snail say when he got on the tortoise's back?





WHEEEEEEEEEEE!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Peace
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:22 PM

Guaranteed method.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Alice
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:28 PM

snail monorail

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:28 PM

I was going to use that as vole control, Peace, but the police said that if I did I'd be violating the local fireworks ban.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:40 PM

You could take your time if you enjoy that sort of thing.

Personally, I find it disturbing.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of snails
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 10:42 PM

...and this.