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Question about snail control

Greetings everyone,

Snails are taking over my patio plants...they are everywhere. I had to take down all of the ramps to my mini-bogs to keep them out and apparently I waited to long to do that because they're still there after two weeks, even though I've been plucking them out and drowning them every time I find one. Salt water does them in very quickly. They went for one pitcher on a S. purpurea and totally filled it with  snail carcases causing a gross, stinking mess. Its like one crawled up the pitcher, looked in and said,  "Hey everybody, there's a dead one in here, lets all join in!" Funny thing, since then, the purp has gone into a tremendous growth spurt.

You can see in the photo what they are doing to my vfts. Oviously they are reproducing in the soil and there are more of them than I can remove.

In an attempt to control the snails, I bought some stuff called *SLUGGO*. It's active ingredient is iron phosphate and labeled as non-toxic to plants, animals, and pets. It also says that it breaks down into harmless nutrients for plants. I spread some all around the damp places on the patio and in the pots of non-cps.

Has anyone used this product with cps? I'm not comfortable with putting this stuff in my mini-bogs because the label reads, "Active Ingredients 1%, Inert Ingredients 99%." I would think that a small amount of iron in the soil would be beneficial, but the phosphate probably would be quiet harmful and who knows what the inert ingredient is. Any info would be appreciated.

Alan


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I wonder if the beer trick would work...It works with slugs, and they're related...Put out a bowl of beer and they should be attracted to it and drown. Well, at least they die happy!
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Hi Alan -

I have had slugs terrorizing my CP's this wet summer here in Connecticut.

One thing I do is go out late at night, just before bed with a spritz bottle and any slug I see gets blasted. In the bottle is a mixture of water with about a tablespoon of ammonia added. If even a few droplets get on a slug it will start melting. I would imagine it would work on snails too.

It is helping, and I haven't seen any damage from the stuff on my pitcher plants.

WildBill
 
Thanks Shloaty and WildBill for the suggestions. I did put out bowls of beer with a ramp leading to the top so that they could get in and it drowned large numbers of them, but hardly knocked a dent in the population. Ammonia? Humm. I know salt wipes out snails and slugs but I never thought about using ammonia. The Sluggo stuff seems to be working, but I'll keep that in mind for a back-up effort or to get rid of any residual pockets of them that I find. Usually, whatever will kill slugs will kill snails.

Alan
 
The beer worked some, huh. Cool. I guess you just need MORE BEER!
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Amonia
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yuck...you can't drink the leftovers.
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Are snails really worthy of having beer?
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It is hard enough to have some one buy you a beer.
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</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"Hey everybody, there's a dead one in here, lets all join in!" Funny thing, since then, the purp has gone into a tremendous growth spurt.
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LOL
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How about puting your plants on a plat form of some sort on the patio? I do not think the snail would crawl up a table to get your plants. Hard to say but it is an idea. I think the Savage Garden has something on how to keep snails away too.

Travis
 
Copper compounds are poisonous to invertebrates (slugs/snails .. molusks etc)  
I remember reading somewhere that the copper based treatments for fish disease will kill the slugs/snails quite effectively.  Just mix it up with some water and spritz the leaves and ground around the plant lightly.

Tony
 
Grow a lot more S. purpurea - then you can just chuck the snails in when you see them.

Giles
 
I wouldn't use it if it breaks down into nutrients. CPs really can't tolerate things like that and it will probably burn the roots.
You can buy copper rings which you can put around the plants. They have a natural electric current which snails and slugs can't stand.
You could also try submerging a couple of yoghurt pots and filling them with beer.
 
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