"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , Phil L
writes
I just wanted to enquire in here about insects, weeds and
elevation...
About 7 years ago we used to live at the top of the hill from where
I live
now, we'd lived there for 30 years and in all that time I never saw
one
snail, in fact I thought we lived in a part of the country where
they hadn't
yet conquered, yet down here there are millions of the buggers - I
only live
400 yards away from where I used to live!
The hill is about 40 feet in total height...we only ever had tiny
black or
pale brown slugs, yet down here they are up to four inches long and
an inch
thick, either bright orange or black...the soil down here is very
sandy
underneath, up there it was a heavy clay type soil...is elevation
to blame
for this or is it the soil type? - I'd have thought that with the
extra
drainage down here they would be *less* suited than up there where
rainwater
seemed to take days to get through the clay..

Up to 7 years ago I hadn't seen a snail in our garden. Now we find
them
by the handful. We haven't moved - it's still the same garden

Ditto. And this year they are much worse than ever before.

Franz