snails - friend or foe

I have a lovely little pond which is just over a year old. It has lilies, irises, water hawthorn, a couple of frogs. And several thousand snails...
Is it ok to have lots of snails in the pond? Should I take a few of them out? What purpose do they serve? Will they do any harm?
Ta!
lynne

 

Hi Lynne, snails keep the pond clean, they tend to eat the nasty bits on the liner, pots etc rather than the plants so I'd keep them.

 

They seem to be wolfing down my new Stratiotes baby plants though! I'm worried they'll scoff the lot!

 

I have snails of three types in my pond and all seem to eat just rubish. the general idea to have snails in the pond is to keep the pond clean as Pete said.

 

Fancy they don't just eat all the rubbish they will eat plants, fish eggs, breed like rabbits, this is an interesting aricle worth a read.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWebIndex/pdsnailwgm.htm

 

aricle read article

 

Interesting - thanks Walnut