Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message from di7ip contains these words:

Can anybody tell me if snails are pests or pals?

If you haven't noticed any problems, then they aren't a significant
pest in your sort of garden whatever that is. Both snails and slugs eat
dying vegetation (cleaning up dead plants) and attract feeding birds to
the garden.

What! Don't they ever eat live vegetation? I suppose you may be making
some sort of philosophical statement, but....