Snails.....

[Damian Bee]

Snails snails and more bloody snails. I kill them and they keep coming, from where I do not know. I don't use the green pellets as I have lizards but I have used the red ones which are not harmful to animals with success but the snails keep on coming
Beer traps are a waste of beer and eggshells do not work. Please somebody give me THE solution to this problem. Is there one?

[Josh]

Try fine sawdust around the plants. It sticks to the snails and they hate it. Or try getting a few pet blue tongue lizards around your garden, they will soon solve your problem.

Josh

[paddles]

a couple of blue tongues, or a turtle, or a duck... but hte blue toungues are the least damaging

[Paul B]

Talcum powder ,tho not pretty it has worked for me

[bodhidharma]

It is the one thing i do not get. Snails are snapped up by the wild ducks i have on the property. They clean them up big time. I just have to put up with lots of duck POO.

[squizzy]

I have ducks but I cant see that being a sensible solution around bonsai

[harry]

Salt, or Bi carb soda, Ash, of course sawdust as has been suggested.

Harry

[bodhidharma]

I have ducks but I cant see that being a sensible solution around bonsai

I didnt say it was sensible i just said i have no snails but if your Bonsai are up on a bench then it is not a problem.

[Mojo Moyogi]

Damian, you don't have your bonsai on the ground, do you?

Cheers
Mojo

[squizzy]

Hi bhodi,

I didnt even realize you had already said ducks so I can see how you may have taken that. Sorry I was just being comical. Although my ducks are in another area but they still seem to deter the snails throughout my whole yard. Could be something in that.

Cheers

Squizz

[chipper5]

Coffee is supposed to be an excellent deterrant and if you use it as a spray it will kill them.

Has to be ground coffee- not instant so if you have a coffee plunger or machine, use the leftover coffee granules and strain them. Use the liquid in a spray bottle (cool of course ) and spray on slugs and snails and watch them die. Apparently the caffeine in the coffee attacks their nervous system (so the stronger the better). I've used it on some massive leopard slugs and they were dead the next day. Its a fantastic natural spray and high in nitrogen so most plants will like it. (esp camellias and azaleas)

Then with any leftover coffee grounds you can use them in a thin layer (about 1cm thick by a few cm wide) and make a ring around the plants you'd like to protect. Same again, it's a deterrant and if they crawl over the coffee grounds they will die.

Let us know how you go if you try it.

Chipper5

Apparently coffee grounds are a great soil conditioner too, so add to your compost, as a layer around vegies/garden plants or in a worm farm if you have one

[squizzy]

arent leopard slugs good slugs?

[squizzy]

just looked it up. It seems that some varieties of leopard slug do eat other slugs but also plants so I guess they are not really that good after all.

[Damian Bee]

Damian, you don't have your bonsai on the ground, do you?

Cheers
Mojo

Shade house Is down at present till I rebuild it. Half are on ground and half on shelves. I have a policy of kill on sight with snails here. It's one of a few creatures that I won't tolerate because of the damage they can do. Most of my trees are not eaten by snails with the exception of the Magnolias, seedlings and Azalea when in bloom and the occasional new shoot.

[Damian Bee]

Most of the fine material inc coffee and powders etc tends to lose its property after the first encounter with moisture. I was putting coffee fines out at the back door until I noticed an explosion of slug and snails in the vacinity of the fines. As for shelves, I have seen slugs hanging off threads of slime in my shade house when I was about 14. You could say they were hangin to get into the maiden hair fern which was in a hanging basket.