"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
om...
"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...
"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!
[...]

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.

What's the local thrush population like?

There are at least 2 breeding pairs in the close vicinity, and they
make much use of the garden. I don't think that is the root of the
problem. The snail population has simply exploded.

People have been worrying
about them for a while now. You'd normally expect predator
population
to rise in proportion to that of their prey unless some other factor
were at work.

Franz