Early morning tiny snails attack young garden plants' stems! Help!
by
Ruth Conner
+1
I cleared the 1/4th acre for this garden myself, pulling up stumps with a Come-Along over 50 years ago. The soil is all sifted compost made from leaves and kitchen scraps (vegetarian) HOW to make these snail unwelcome? Don't like to use methods that kill for fear birds may be injured, or beneficial insects/butterflies...............87 year old gardening grandma Ruth
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Just like slugs they love beer, place pie plates with beer in it, they go in get drunk and die, they also have a powder that works on snails.
For some reason, snails do a good deed. I am not sure what, but they do. You may want to read up on this. I use a large plastic pop bottle, made of plastic, and cut the curving part out, then insert this backwards into the bottle, and staple it shut. They will go in just fine, and they can't come out. You can empty this if you choose, and re-staple it, and keep on using. They will go in there freely, then you have them. I have several around the flower beds, and no problems. J.
You should be able to also use crushed egg shells or diamataceus earth to help get rid of them(egg shells) or kill them(DE). Neither of them should harm the birds or beneficial insect/butterflies. The egg shells will put calcium in your soil as they break down which is also beneficial to the soil.
There is food grade diatomaceous earth available, if you have teetotaler snails.