I HATE SNAILS

Now that's a good idea, Fonz, although I have minimal to nil problem with them. Thanks.

 

I posted this on the other thread in Edible Gardening: Snails but thought it might be appropriate on this thread? :D
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Make money from your snails!!!
I saw this little item when googling and in view of all the GC members that have so many snails,
I thought this was a useful idea.


"I was happily eating my oats yesterday morning in front of the telly, when I almost choked. nothing wrong with my oats, nor with my mastication technique. It was the information on t.v. selling SNAIL GEL. Apparently snails produce something that helps them repair broken shells and other damage. People who worked on snail farms (I want a snail farm please!) had unusually smooth and beautiful hands. So they put snail slime in a jar and are selling it to give you a gorgeous skin. It heals acne, scars, blemishes, stretch marks. They even had video clips of a person rubbing a snail on his hands�....ew!"

 

double euwww!!

 

nice one Jjordie

 

Just tried it waiting for the results. :D

 

Walnut - ew!
Did you rub a snail on your face - ew again!

 

Wow it works its much better than botox I look like a film star.

 

I was planting out some Aster's this morning, and had a horrible thought that the slugs and snails were watching me and thinking "Breakfast is served".

Maybe if I also put out the Canterbury Bells there will be too much for them to do any real damage. Or they'll treat it like a Chinese eat all you want buffet and keep coming back for extra helpings.

 

I don't knlw whether snails have ;arachures, but they must have crampons - I've found them on the greenhouse roof. INSIDE!
Laurie

 

Hi Kandyfloss,

Not sure how true this is but here goes.....

Apparently if you leave some beer in a shallow but lipped container slugs and snails make a beeline for it but can't make it out again :D no need to explain why :D but would it attract wasps?

 

Got sent this today in the Penlan Perennials newsletter and I thought you might find it interesting. Good nursery and the guy knows his plants.
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SLUG PELLETS

We have never used slug pellets, preferring to have the wildlife and suffer the inevitable plant losses, gradually altering our gardening style (and catalogue list) toward plants which are naturally resistant. After reading some new research on Ferramol (the commercial name for a new organic control based on Ferric Phosphate) we decided to experiment with the product this year. It has gained organic status and been approved by the Soil Association so what is it and how effective has it been?

Ferric phosphate is a stomach poison with low toxicity to all organisms other than slugs and snails and once ingested feeding immediately stops. The slug or snail crawls away (no messy slime trail) and dies within 3-5 days. The pellet is blue in colour and made of a durum wheat base (like spaghetti!), looking exactly like any other slug pellet. It is unattractive to ground predators such as carabid beetle and earthworms as well as birds and domestic animals. The pellet is plasticky to touch and resilient to wetting and drying, slowly degrading over 14 days to iron and phosphate which are naturally occurring and are then taken up by plants as basic nutrients. Do they work? We think so, although there is never a pile of corpses to tell! It is important to repeat the dosage as we have found that all the pellets can be eaten over a night or two. We have discovered that the mice like them and eat them (without effect!), probably because they have a cereal base. They have been particularly effective on Veratrum and Cardiocrinum, which quickly become unsaleable if slugs and snails attack the pots and they are also safe in the kitchen garden as there is no harvesting interval after application.

Is there a catch? As with all new products the pellets are quite expensive as the company needs to recoup its research and development costs. Prices will fall as more people use them and from our point of view lost plants are also expensive and alternatives such as Nemaslug are not practical on the scale we would need to use them. Besides, we have Song thrush and Mistle thrush and listening to their beautiful voices make it a price well worth paying.

 

I have been trying these, and not realising they had a cereal base have been mystified as to where they all went! Thanks for clarifying that. Obviously there are still lots of mice around in my garden! They are still cheaper than Nemaslug which I have never used as I hate the idea of the way the slugs die, apart from being very expensive, as are all the nematodes.

 

Hate to disillusion anyone but I think you will find the contents of the compost bin goes in the council shredder before composting and reselling. Also slug pellets kill snails as well. Been fighting them for years on my Hosta collection. Now if someone produced cat pellets.......

 

Paula, of course beer traps work. My father was using them 80 years ago (I was a very late baby). If you make the beer (or lager or stout - they aren't fussy) deep enough, you don't even need the lip. I never get bothered by snails or slugs with beer traps, or wasps either. And it may cost me a fortune but at least I know they die with a smile on their faces. The days when you could scrounge dregs from your local hostelry seem to have gone.

John

 

The thread reminded me that I hadn't de-slugged/snailed for a couple of weeks so I put out just one trap last night. I didn't have any beer so I used cider not knowing if it would work but vaguely remember hearing that what attracted the pests was the residual yeast so thought it might just get a few.

This is the result:



Sorry folks no snails but about 7 or 8 fat slugs, which I can't even cook

Beer is more efficient so from one 4 inch cider trap's results it's straight down to the off-licence for me this a.m. and I'll send the invitations round the garden for a party tonight.

John.