Out, out, damned snails!

Factual Questions
1

There’s a small flower bed right next to the front door of my house. It’s a nice little piece of color for people to look at when they enter or exit the place (or it would be, if it wasn’t for the fact that 90% of my visitors enter through the garage instead).

Anyway, the one thing that mucks up this pristine image is the sight of snails climbing, clinging, and tanning themselves on the wall of the house right above the flower bed. I don’t care what the French may think, but they just creep me out. I’ve applied snail-poison pellets to the flower bed; as advertised, it kills the snails (or drives them away), but they inevitably return a week later.

Is there some other long-term/permanent solution I can follow to get rid of these snails? Or should I resign myself to spreading poison over the flowerbed on a regular basis?

2
  1. Reduce moisture. Improve drainage, get rid of stuff that holds dampness.
  2. Get rid of rotting stuff. Leaves and whatnot. Use a hard, slowly-decomposing mulch. E.g. pine straw. (Thick and everywhere.)

Note that 1 and 2 overlap.

3

Well rjung I believe Mr.Morton Salt would be your best friend. Yep. Go out there with your salt shaker in hand and sprinkle till your hearts content.

You see the common snail of which you are most likely talking about is Helix (Cyptoomphalus) aspersa. They are not much different than a slug. And they must have a mucus constently secreting from their ‘foot’ (the slime trail you see sometimes) and if those glands and subsequent flesh gets salt on it…well essentially it’ll be ‘seasoning’ itself to dealth… It won’t take long and even after a good rain or watering the salt will still saturate the surfaces and the snails will soon vacate your premices…
disclaimer

If you have some kind of nuclear homicidal snail of which I know nothing about and my little tactic proves insufficient…other means may be necessary to rid your small floral patch of the snotty little vermin…

4

My mother’s solution was a small dish of dark beer placed near the beds in the evening. Overnight the snails would partake themselves to death.

She says you can also buy copper in narrow flat strips (try garden centers)…if you lay it around your area, they won’t cross it.

YMMV.

5

You can actually use non alcoholic beer if you’re concerned about kids picking up the cups and drinking it.

Dig a small hole, deep enough to hold your bowl so that the lip is at ground level. Pour in O’Douls. Watch the little suckers die.

This is the only acceptable use for non-alcoholic beer.

6

I’m not sure exactly where I saw it, but aren’t there some really big, bad-ass looking snails in Washington state? Like as big as your head? They are so grossening…has anyone seen them?

7

Not a good idea - the salt would kill your pretty flowers and poison your soil.
I use a wildlife and pet-safe pellet. But it must be reapplied every few weeks and after rain.
You can hand-pick them after watering and throw them in the street, like I do.
I don’t think there is a permanant solution.
Sorry.

8

Echokitty, I believe those may be African giant snails. Years ago I remember something about some getting loose in the states to wreck their snaily havoc on us americans. I saw a picture of one of them; the bastard was as big as a man’s fist.

Snails are just plain geeroossss!

9

Bah! Bigot ;). They are marvels of evolutionary design :).

  • Tamerlane
10

You should be ashamed to waste food that way…

11

around the edges of the flower bed put some coarse gravel/ sharp grit, coal ash from a fire type stuff - it works great for slugs (who afterall are only homeless snails) they just prefer not to go over the stuff. it really works, then its just a matter of evicting the ones who are in the bed, at least then none should come overland to the sanctuary of the flowers.
You could try a line of grease along the wall, they dont like to traverse that either.

12

Cayenne pepper and diatomaceous earth (agriculture grade; don’t use the stuff for swimming pool filters) also will do away with them. Won’t hurt pets, plants or offspring, either. Well you may want to keep your kids away from the pepper unless they like spicy food.

You will have to use it about as often as you would chemical control. Both lose their effectiveness after a rain.