I have a beautiful garden being invaded by snails. Is there an organic or natural way to get rid of them?
Question:My nieghbors have pets and children. I am looking for something that would be safer for the nieghborhood.
Answers:
There is a chemical that can be applied that will kill all the snails. It's a pellet. If the neighbor children choose to eat pellets in your yard, perhaps eliminating THEM will serve us all well.
Short of that, saucers of beer will do the trick. The snails crawl in, get intoxicated and drown. The next morning, pour the mixture of beer and snails into a ziplock bag and dispose of them. If you don't close them up, many of them will sober up and crawl away. No lie!!
I'm guessing that if you're worried about the neighbor kids eating the pellets, you'll need to worry about them drinking the beer, too. Good luck.
Snails love beer; Put some in some bottle half buried in the ground they crawl in and drown. I guess the smell lures them in
Beer in a shallow pie pan works.
they have children!! great i have pet snails give the snail to the children
A trail of salt poured around your garden will keep them out! Salt kills them!! And it won't hurt your plants, pets, or kids!!
Pick them out of your yard & throw them away. Snails love damp places, so I've set out some small cardboard boxes under the shrubs. Then I go out every couple of days, collect the snails & dump them in the garbage can.
UC Davis' Integrated Pest Management program (see link below) describes a comprehensive, non-toxic approach.
I like "desert rat"'s answer best. In addition to her link and suggestions, I've had good luck with diatomaceous earth, sometimes marketed as "Concern". All it is, really, is a white powdery substance that appears to be clumpy white dirt. But, what it really is composed of is microscopic diatom shells that are safe to humans and pets, but to all soft-bodied insects, such as snails and slugs, it's like trying to cross a line of rusty razor blades . If they do try to cross, it will cut their soft undersides and they will die. More likely, they are simply repelled. The only danger - and it is a very slight risk - is that someone or an animal would inhale a large amount of the stuff. Since it has no odor, however, pets usually leave it alone.
By the way, salt WILL harm your plants over time if you use too much of it. You'll start to notice yellow or brown tipped leaves and virtually no flower production.
This is the way my mother got rid of slugs and snails, in the garden and flower bed. She put an aluminum pie tin filled with beer on the ground in the garden and left it for a couple of days. The slugs, attracted to the beer, drowned. Environmentally, and dog friendly slug killer.
Yep, although beer traps work, they also attract flies and other bugs, including wasps, so I agree with Desert Rat, use another type of trap if possible. My favorite has been old loose planks layed around the periphery of the vegetable bed. I have slugs, not snails, but same principle. During the heat of the day, they go to hide under the board where it is damp, and can be easily eliminated by lifting the board up and either crushing or picking them out and gracefully throwing them somewhere else to die.
Using dried grass under damp plantings such as thick lettuce, also helps, as the dried grass will pierce the outer membrane. Once pierced, the slug or snail dries up and dies (help, I'm melting). You can shake a little table salt on a slug or snails head (shell protects them somewhat) without doing too much damage to the soil, but I wouldn't use salt liberally in the garden.
Put out some shallow dishes with beer in them I don't use damp wood or carboard because of termites some people use salt but salt will hurt your soil and kill your plants.
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