in article , John Savage at
wrote on 5/3/03 6:30 PM:

"paddys1" writes:
The best you can do is when the evening is damp and the slugs and snails are
out, go out and sprinkle salt on them, watch them shrivel up and die. I

If you use laundry powder instead of the salt, the snails squeal as well.
But it is not going to be good for your garden to be adding salt to the
soil. It has been said that you can spray the snails with coffee and it
will kill them. I haven't tried it. Perhaps a pinch of instant coffee
sprinkled onto slugs will finish them off? An instant caffine hit might
turn them into frentic hyperslugs, burning themselves out in minutes?

The iron-based snail pellets are supposed to be safe, and don't fall
apart so quickly in wet weather like the old types seem to.

Instead of common salt, sodium chloride, you might try potassium chloride,
or even better, potassium nitrate if you can get it and handle it safely.
Although I have not tried it, I expect it to be bad for snails and good for
the garden (within limits). Don't smoke or swallow it.

Bill


Bill