buried snails

I keep finding snails half buried in the garden. At first I ignored them thinking that they were empty shells left by the birds, until I lifted one the other day and found a nice fat snail attached to a big mass of white eggs! It was obviously in the middle of laying her brood in the soil of one of my pots! So I am now going round the garden looking as closely as possible for more doing the same. Now I'm all for procreation... but I think there are enough snails around in my garden this year without making more!

You'll be busy, Doris!

Joe

Snails are both he and she, but need each other to make babies, attaching by a tube on their sides...nice ain't it

Mmmm! Thanks wintersong for that bit of knowledge! Trouble is I don't like destroying snails and slugs by squashing. Anyone got a kind way of disposing of them? I bagged some up the other day and put them in the dustbin sack just before they were collected. Plenty of waste matter for them to get their teeth into up at the dump! I'm a softie at heart you see.

I am having similar problems with slugs and thought my remedy would be a resident hedgehog but a friend has just advised me to install a mini pond to attract frogs and wildlife and this should sort out my problem with the slugs I'm not sure about snails with shells though but good luck.

diggingdoris wrote (see)

I bagged some up the other day and put them in the dustbin sack just before they were collected. Plenty of waste matter for them to get their teeth into up at the dump! I'm a softie at heart you see.

Well you are being kind if they can get out of the bag, otherwise its slow starvation and suffocation inside the bin liner

To be kind, I guillotine them really quick with my secateurs. Sacrebleu!

est the quest wrote (see)

I am having similar problems with slugs and thought my remedy would be a resident hedgehog but a friend has just advised me to install a mini pond to attract frogs and wildlife and this should sort out my problem with the slugs I'm not sure about snails with shells though but good luck.

We have a pond & lots of frogs and I must say we haven't seen many slugs this year at all. Just wish I could say the same about the snails!

I put them in with the weeds etc that i put in the council recycling bag.Its collected once a week but i stilll find loads in the garden. They are everywhere.

Oh no I don't tie the bag up, they'd never get out! I just want them to live at the council tip and not in my garden!

Oh wintersong how could you!

Haha so entertaining reading that , unfortunately I'm not so kind they cost me way too much over the years. Just hope I do not come back as one, good luck with the snail trail everyone, they are loving this weather.

Snip Snip if the pellets don't get em.

I used to live in the midlands, and regularly had a song thrush that would find snails in Mum's garden, and bash them repeatedly against the rockery to get to the snail inside.

I haven't even SEEN a song thrush in my garden, we get plenty of sparrows, have a nesting pair of blackbirds, collared doves, the odd starling and magpie (the last two I evict whenever I see them).  I did see a woodpecker a few weeks ago, and what I think may have been a sparrowhawk (came and went in a flash).

As for slugs, I think the two resident frogs eat all mine (thank goodness), as I've not seen that many in the back garden this year, and from everyone else's posts, I understand they're everywhere this year.  Snails I stomp on with my big wellies and leave for the birds to clear up. 

Copper collars round the base of the plants.  It does work, honestly.  My sister in law has been using them with great effect in her vegetable garden, they seem costly but do last virtually for ever so can be re-used time and time again. 

I grow around 65 different hostas in pots and nearly gave the collection  up a few years ago because of snail/slug damage, until I was told about copper tape around the pots, it really has mde a huge difference.  Even in this wet weather, there is little damage done by snails ans slugs, though there are always a few which crawl up the wet and drooping leaves, but the majority which climb the pots just do not pass the copper.

Think i better fork [ ha ha] out for the copper collars. Mum swears by vaseline around the pots, a bit gooey but its worth a try.

Tried vaseline, WD40, eggshells, grit, porridge oats etc., copper beats them all - this wet weather the larger hosta leaves do droop to the ground and the slugs can crawl up them, but still they are far better than they used to be.

I suppose the kindest way is to drown them in beer, but I favour patrols with a pair of scissors and a quick beheading. It can't be very pleasant being eaten by a bird!!! Will invest in the copper, though, for the really vulnerable plants. Might even be worth growing Delphiniums again!

I give them to my Chickens.  They love them as a bit of a treat.  Do you know anyone with Hens that would appreciate them?