Come the rain, our snails have all woken up! :-((
I now have hundreds of the b*****s slithering around my garden gobbling
up all my prized plants.Vaseline around the rim of pots doesn't seem to
deter them, the song thrushes have long since gone and our resident hedgehog
is nowhere to be seen so I thought I might try a few beer traps. I have
been advised that I should only use cheapo beer, why waste the good stuff
on them anyway? It seems that snails can smell beer of any quality from many
slithers away, so if I were to use a better class of beer - I don't drink
cheapo beer and would have to buy in some poor stuff especially for them -
wouldn't it attract to my garden a better class of snail with a much more
formidable munching power than the ones here at the moment?

Bill Brewer

"Bill Brewer" wrote in message
...
Come the rain, our snails have all woken up! :-((
I now have hundreds of the b*****s slithering around my garden gobbling
up all my prized plants.Vaseline around the rim of pots doesn't seem to
deter them, the song thrushes have long since gone and our resident
hedgehog
is nowhere to be seen so I thought I might try a few beer traps. I have
been advised that I should only use cheapo beer, why waste the good stuff
on them anyway? It seems that snails can smell beer of any quality from
many
slithers away, so if I were to use a better class of beer - I don't drink
cheapo beer and would have to buy in some poor stuff especially for them -
wouldn't it attract to my garden a better class of snail with a much more
formidable munching power than the ones here at the moment?

Bill Brewer

Encourage hedgehog with cheapo catfood if available, never put down milk as
it kills them, make sure your neighbours aren't using slug pellets.

No, vaseline won't bother them in the least. You could try rendering a
substantial band of sharp render (with sharp sand and stones about 1-2mm
across ideally) round your pot. It would need to be a few inches wide.

If you can see them all slithering I don't see what the use of the trap is -
why not just kill them where they are?

Actually I generally think, whenever I find them, that it's a waste of time
since their population will recover so quickly from any impact - they're
starving all the time in the first place. So unless I actually see them in
the wrong place at the wrong time I normally ignore them and just try to
make my slugalicious plants less appealing. (They've got enough weeds /
compost/ whatever to eat instead, let's face it.)

The new lettuces have basically survived through a week or so of rain so
that's not bad, that's all down to sharp sand.


Warwick Dumas


http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/warwickdumas

I've noticed this, in the road side of our garden we have lots of trees with
birds living in them (and a beautiful baby pigeon who is very tame!) and
they feed at that end, because that's where we put the feeders. I've never
had a snail eaten plant at that end. At the other end there aren't so many
trees with birds nesting, and this is where my plants are seeming to get
eaten! I've avoided it more of less so far by scattering a little salt on
the soil, more around the edge of the bed and they don't seem to like that!

Charlie.

"H" wrote in message
...
I read that stout works far better than any other type of beer / lager.

- h




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I only use a little, and have found that the effects lasts about a month,
long enough to allow the little plants to grow into big plants! I don't see
really any snail damage on my bigger plants, nor have I seen any effect from
using salt.

Charlie.

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.10...
"Charlie" wrote in
:

At the other end there aren't so many
trees with birds nesting, and this is where my plants are seeming to
get eaten! I've avoided it more of less so far by scattering a little
salt on the soil, more around the edge of the bed and they don't seem
to like that!

Your plants won't like it either, if you keep it up! Salt is very
poisonous, to plants as well as slugs and even a little sprinkled
regularly
in the same spot may cause problems. You may get away with it if the rain
washes it off before it can build up, but personally I'd use something
safer and more long-lasting.

Use grit or eggshells instead, nematode the area, put down slug pellets
enclosed inside a slug trap to keep off local wildlife, or if you must use
salt, collect the slugs and snails and salt them somewhere well away from
your growing area.

Victoria Clare


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Stephen Howard wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 19:04:15 +0100, Tarzan wrote:

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 14:41:18 +0100, Stephen Howard
wrote:

snip

But seriously ( folks ), at the risk of being thought a loony by your
neighbours - get out there in the night with a torch and pick the
blighters off your plants. In just a week you'll have decimated the
population.

Regards,

why all the trouble at night you can see them snoozing in the day
pluck them up

Well, generally speaking, the slugs and snails seem to scoot off
during the day to hide under rocks and in assorted nooks and crannies
( usually in amongst a convenient patch of nettles ).

Plus I do tend to go to work during the day

Regards,



--


I had a bunch of roof tiles surplus to requirements - I put some down on
soil in the shade and some propped on bricks to let snails underneath. I've
managed to off more slugs/snails in a week than a month of sluggits last
year. Yes, checking tiles once a day does require a certain
Bill-Murray-in-caddyshack type fanaticism, but hey.. one woman's fanatic is
another woman's enthusiastic afficionado



Liz

In just a week you'll have decimated the
population.

Reduced it by a tenth, do you mean? ;-)

If I had to put a percentage on it I'd estimate about 80%.

But you said decimated ... that means reduced by one tenth.

Mary

Tesco value beer works out at about 23p a pint and tastes surprisingly alright.

Hopefully there won't be any slugs around here for a while - apparently a
celebrity neighbour of ours has decided to provide homes for 200 asylum seeking
hedgehogs!

Lorraine

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:18:18 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:



In just a week you'll have decimated the
population.

Reduced it by a tenth, do you mean? ;-)

If I had to put a percentage on it I'd estimate about 80%.

But you said decimated ... that means reduced by one tenth.


Only if you're a Roman soldier...apparently.

Now, where's that chariot....

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 19:02:43 +0100, Tarzan wrote:


monty don says collect them all up and dump them
easy
then some holly leaves around plant

I hadn't thought of holly leaves. I will try those. The other idea
prompted by another post which recommended a band of 'rendering' with
sharp sand around the sides of pots, was to translate that onto the
horizontal. A hollow shape, Polo mint round or hollow square, piece of
board rendered similarly. The trouble with that is, I suppose, that it
couldn't really be overhung by touching plants whose foliage could
support the weight of the mollusc.

Respect

Hussein


Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 13:33:27 +0100, "Bill Brewer"
wrote:

A veteran gardener once gave me a good tip for killing and disposing of
snails. He said collect them all together placing them in a largish
terracotta flower pot then pour boiling water on them. When the water has
drained away, .........................
I thought you were going to suggest eating them!!!


Pam in Bristol
pamdotmooreatvirgindotnet

"Paul wrote in message

"Bill wrote in message ...
Come the rain, our snails have all woken up! :-((
I now have hundreds of the b*****s slithering around my garden gobbling
up all my prized plants. ((big snip)) and crossposted

Whilst on the subject of snails, today, whilst walking the North Downs
way
near Newlands Corner, we came across the biggest snail we have ever seen,
it
was huge, many times bigger than any garden snail we've seen.
No idea what species it was** but it must thankfully be rare, am I glad
we
don't get those on the allotment. :-)

**Perhaps someone on uk.rec.natural-history could enlighten us?

It sounds like an giant African land snail - they are popular pets.
Someone may have released it, perhaps?

But would one of those be able to stand the cold conditions?
It did look as if it had been around outside all it's life, shell worn and
scratched, not like a pampered pet snail.

--
Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.

On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 18:40:06 +0100, "Sue & Bob Hobden"
wrote:


"Paul wrote in message

"Bill wrote in message ...
Come the rain, our snails have all woken up! :-((
I now have hundreds of the b*****s slithering around my garden gobbling
up all my prized plants. ((big snip)) and crossposted

Whilst on the subject of snails, today, whilst walking the North Downs
way
near Newlands Corner, we came across the biggest snail we have ever seen,
it
was huge, many times bigger than any garden snail we've seen.
No idea what species it was** but it must thankfully be rare, am I glad
we
don't get those on the allotment. :-)

**Perhaps someone on uk.rec.natural-history could enlighten us?

It sounds like an giant African land snail - they are popular pets.
Someone may have released it, perhaps?

But would one of those be able to stand the cold conditions?
It did look as if it had been around outside all it's life, shell worn and
scratched, not like a pampered pet snail.

Not too cold, no. They do OK at room temperature - 60ish, but are
better a little warmer. I expect one could survive a while in the kind
of weather we had recently. Having said that, I'm not really sure just
how much cold they could tolerate - I'm not going to try it with ours!

--
Paul

http://paulrooney.netfirms.com/myweb/index.htm
Updated 19 April 03

"Sue & Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

I've found a picture of one and it wasn't it. Shell was very like a normal
garden snail in shape, not elongated, and was (worn?) white where the
snail
wasn't living. Actual animal was perfect, rather beautiful, and grey in
colour.

Then perhaps it was a Roman Snail, Helix pomatia; but I wouldn't have called
this 'huge' in quite the terms you used - it's about half as big again as
the garden snail Helix aspersa. There are other similar large snails from
farther afield such as Helix lucorum, but I don't know of any of these
actually living in the wild in the UK.

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:18:18 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:



In just a week you'll have decimated the
population.

Reduced it by a tenth, do you mean? ;-)

If I had to put a percentage on it I'd estimate about 80%.

But you said decimated ... that means reduced by one tenth.

Or to a tenth? My Dictionary doesn't say.

Oxford Advanced Learners says a decimal is ... Oh no.
Nine tenths is a decimal from what I gather. But so, on the other hand
is one tenth.


Hussein
Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

"Hussein M." wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:18:18 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:



In just a week you'll have decimated the
population.

Reduced it by a tenth, do you mean? ;-)

If I had to put a percentage on it I'd estimate about 80%.

But you said decimated ... that means reduced by one tenth.

Or to a tenth? My Dictionary doesn't say.
snip

Definately BY a tenth, since the Roman army used to force any unit which
showed cowardice to beat to death one tenth of their colleagues using wooden
clubs. The poor unfortunate 10th was chosen by drawing lots and this is
where the term Decimate came from.
Thank heaven for "What the Romans did for us"
Duncan