How do I get snails out of my garden?
Question:I have never seen them in there before this year and I am finding them all over.
Answers:
get a can of beer and empty tuna can. poor the beer in the can and set in the garden. soon the snails will want to drink the beer and fall in and drowned. thay like the smell of beer.
Home center sell boxes of stuff that will get rid of them. Look in the garden section.
Lots of slug pellets,
just put down salt.
this lady once told me to put alcohal in a bowl or something next to the garden she said that it works.
Pour some salt around your rich soil of pour beer. Snails like hanging around good rich soil this is why you have snails all over your garden.
Use slug repellent pellets like Sluggo. the snail will eat it, and it forms a gastric blockage and the snail simply starves to death.
Publication Date: Friday, April 06, 2001
Got snails? Getting them out of the garden requires persistence
By Marcia Fein
If you planted flowers, lettuce, or other tender beauties last month and watched them disappear leaf by leaf, chances are you've got snails. Did the soil around your disappearing plants shimmer with ribbons of iridescent goo? If so, it's a certainty: "snail trails" are dead giveaways for snails, or slugs, or both.
If you are tempted to throw in the trowel because these pests undo your every effort in the garden, or you think the only way to beat them is with chemicals that can be harmful to your children, pets and songbirds, I have good news for you. You can reduce the snail (and slug) population to a tolerable level by eliminating the critters from specific areas and catching interlopers. And you can do it without risking your health or spending a fortune.
The list below provides a number of suggestions. All of them work, but keep in mind that no method will entirely eliminate snails and slugs -- not even the poisons. Success depends on choosing a method you can apply consistently and then doing it. Pick the ones that suit the way you want to garden. Over time you will find the methods and results that suit you.
Hand pick them. Everything starts with this. To do it effectively, you need to know where snails hide. Hints: they like it cool, dark and damp -- like under boards, bags and boxes. They cling to smooth surfaces -- like the undersides of your broccoli leaves. The best time of day to pick is early morning, before the sun warms the ground, or after dark, by flashlight.
Dispose of them. You can pick them into a plastic bag and squish them, or you can pick them into a jug of water and drown them. (The corpses can then be added to the compost pile to add a little nitrogen -- something that can't be done if poisons are used). Some folks think the best thing to do with our brown snails is to put them in a cage, feed them lettuce and cornmeal for a week or two, and -- voila! -- escargot!
Deny them shelter. If you make your garden less hospitable, fewer snails will move in. Don't leave plant six-packs, old pots or trash on the ground. Remove dead foliage.
Take away their transport. Snails and slugs require moisture to move and lay down a trail of mucus to glide on. The drier the soil, the more difficult it is for them. To make your garden really inhospitable, water early enough in the day that the soil surface is dry by dark. They'll travel in another direction (e.g., to your neighbor's damp garden).
Install a security fence. Surround your garden or groups of especially delicious seedlings with copper foil. It comes in rolls about 3 inches wide and is usually sold by the foot. Snail goo and copper produce a chemical reaction that snails hate. Those that attempt the three-inch vertical climb usually fall off.
Bait with iron phosphate. This is a new snail control product that does not attract or harm other animals. Sprinkle the granules in a broad band around the perimeter of your moist garden, or around groups of plants. Do this in the evening before the snails come out to feed. This band can intercept the pests before they reach your tender plants. It makes them stop eating and slide away into the shrubbery to die.
Iron phosphate exists naturally in the soil and and is an ingredient in some fertilizers. It should be reapplied as it is consumed, or about every two weeks. Use about one tablespoon per square yard. Two brands available locally are Escar-go! and Sluggo.
If you must use a more poisonous snail bait, here are a few things to remember:
*Before a poison can kill pests, they have to eat it. Your neighbor's snails may come to dinner, too.
*It may not attract baby snails.
*Metaldehyde doesn't work very well in cool weather.
*The bait has to stay dry to be effective. A carton or upside-down lidded plastic tub with snail-size openings at the soil surface will keep out rain and sprinkler water and prevent the bait from absorbing moisture from the soil.
*The bait -- and the mollusks it kills -- can disintegrate into the soil. Use containers and empty them regularly.
*Birds, cats and dogs may eat bait pellets, too, and become very sick (Remember the warnings from the label: "Keep out of reach of children and pets;" "Toxic to birds and wildlife.") Help protect them by only using bait in a container.
Or if you would like a greener alternative, go here: http://www.greenhome.com/info/articles/y...
Good luck:D
use chemical and cut grasses and twig
check sprinkler and leak
Take a low lid of somkind can, small bowl, etc... fill it with beer and make sure the top is fairly level with the ground.. that should do the trick, they'll crawl in and drown, happy but drown.
Clear out the old leaves & mulch which they may be hiding in. Then spread around one of these materials which will cut & dehydrate the snails & slugs, & eliminate them: sharp sand, lava rock, diatamaceous earth, cedar, oak leaves & needles from conifers. Herbs such as Rosemary, Lemon Balm,Wormwood, Mints, Tansy, and seaweed will repel snail & slugs.
Sprinkle Chili pepper or coffee on the snails. Use coffee grounds around acid loving plants.
Oat bran should kill the snails. Just sprinkle some in your garden. Also, you can trap & drown them with any liquid fermented material, such as yeast disolved in warm water.
If you water in the morning, your garden will dry by evening, cutting down on areas for the snails to breed in.
Good luck! Hope this helps.
More Related Questions & Answers...