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Ask Alison- 144
EWWWW Snails

Ahh spring time at last! Oh please don’t misunderstand, I like life and any ol’ season has its good points. It is just that I like the long
days, the warmth and the promise of watermelon. As the days lengthen and the world comes alive again it is bound to happen…
questions about garden pests!

Q: Last night I found a (yuck) snail in my cat’s food bowl. I think is it a sign that I should start using snail bait but it seems so awful.
What about using beer? Or copper tape? I have tried them both and not had much luck. What would you suggest?

A: Well you have been trying some of the really good stuff. I will talk about both of those methods (pros and cons). Let me first say that
as we go through this growing season I like to practice Integraded Past Management. That means you watch the garden (keeping
notes if you are a brave soul) and look for indications that there is a problem starting. Go after the problems in a timely fashion and
use the least toxic control methods first.

I think the least toxic snail control is the old’ snails like dark places method. You find plants that snails like and put out rolled up
newspapers or shingles in a way that entices them to enter. EVERY morning you go out and empty the area. It is a bit gross but works
if you are consistent. I tried it; I did not kill a great number of snails that way. It seems that if you spray the collected snails with a 1:1
ammonia to water mix that will kill the captives. Salt does not kill… it will make them scream and bubble but then they can re-hydrate.
This is not for the weak of stomach.

The next method (which you have tried) is the beer method. I by the way am a beer drinker and I find it somehow wrong to share my
absolute favorite beverage with snails. It works best if you set up a little pub area that is about 3” or more deep and covered with an
easy 360° entry way. The snails have inexpensive taste when it comes to beer. Many years ago a study was done by an organic
gardening publication, the snails liked Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Luckily they do not seem to mind flat beer so one bottle will last days.
The little beer of death kiosks should be emptied daily. You can make your own trap to fill or pick one up at the store. Keep these near
the Hostas, and other snail food in the garden.

Then there is the copper tape. It is so cool! Snail slime will create a little electric charge when a snail tries to cross the copper line.
So what is not to love about this? 1- it does not kill them. 2- the tape only works if you keep it from tarnishing. 3- the stuff is not cheap.
So here is what I suggest. If you have a nice raised bed of lettuce, put the tape around it as a first line of defense. You will want to
rough it up with a little steel wool now and then (once a month I hear tell) to keep it working. You can put a bit of copper around trees
(like citrus) to keep the snails off, just remember to keep it shiny clean.

What about diatomaceous earth? Well it seems to work but breaks down when it is watered in. So if you have un-irrigated areas that
the snails go to, use it. The drawback is of course that the snails like cool moist environments. Now there is also the drawback that
the diatomaceous earth that is sold as an insecticide is costly. My friend Janice used the stuff for cleaning pools. I am not sure of the
purity of that product and it is not named on a label. If it messes up your specimen Brugmansia (snails just love Brugmansia), I would
not be happy at all.

You can use a Bordeaux mixture of copper sulfate and hydrated lime mixture. Just brush it on and it should repel (not kill) snails…
great for the citrus. It is thought that adding a bit of latex paint will help the mixture be effective longer. There is also a sticky mixture
with copper in it but there are ongoing debates about using a sticky trap directly on a tree If you do use it apply it to a banding material.
You should always allow an overlap in banding material on trees so there is expansion space (incase the tree actually grows).

There is a predatory species of snail out there. I have been seeing them in gardens lately. It is against the law for us to buy and use
them. So when you see one your are seeing an outlaw.

There are many snail baits out there but only two active ingredients. One is good in the Alison book of insect control; one is bad, bad
very bad.

The active ingredient of choice is Iron Phosphate. I like the name of one of the products (Sluggo). All of the products that use this
active ingredient will run about twice as much as the other stuff. The deal is that you only need half as much half as often. Here is the
rub. The snails do not die in public with this stuff, they get depressed and stop eating, going to a cool dark place to die. So you cannot
“see that it is working” It is good to keep an eye on the nummy plants to gauge when it is time to put out more. You will find little snail
graveyards when you use this stuff. When it breaks down it leaves a little white mark but it is short term and when it breaks down it is a
bit of a fertilizer. The real up side is that it will not kill pets

The last choice is the Metaldehyde. It is really bad stuff. A number of pets ingest snail bait. Many pets eat this stuff and go to the vet
some of them don’t survive. Since we can trace so many pet deaths to this stuff I often wonder how many birds and other wild critters
eat it too. So I just recommend other options and in fact if you play mix and match with the other methods you can come up with a
program that works with your time and energy level.

So thanks for the questions. It is always great to hear from you. Alison@simplyperfectgardens, 707-747-9463