I hate snails

My spaghetti squash was doing SO well.

This is after one night having some snail pellets down

Are those dead snails????

Holy cow! that's after one night?! I would say you definitely have (had?) a snail problem!

You have snails?

Find a small dish that you can put into the soil so the edge is flush with the medium. Fill it 3/4 with beer (the cheapest stuff will do). If you don't have any, dissolve some baking yeast and a pinch of sugar in water (it will bubble and double if the yeast is active). Leave it overnight, and discard the dead snails in the morning.

Do it until the brew(ery) has shut them down.

Ava

Next time capture them alive and turn them into escargot

Why capture them alive? Just catch them in the beer and they'll be sauteed before you get them in the morning.

Not sauted...SAUCED!

AvaDGardner wrote:Not sauted...SAUCED!

Yeah, Michelle, I didn't know how you missed that pun!

I heard about how to keep them OUT of your box. I found my first snail this morning. He was huge. Had to be, to climb up 12".

Ready for this simplicity? 14 gage copper wire, once around your box.

They don't like the feel of copper, and wont cross it.

That's why containers often have a copper band. (And here we thought it was for looks!)

Is that too cool or what?

Ava

I do not know what the variables are with copper bands and snails. In SanDeigo all the citrus trees in orchards had wide bands of copper and lots of snails below the band and none above. So, NO, it is not a myth, but obviously there is more to it than yes it works no it doesn't.

the chemicals in the snail combined with the copper cause some sort of electric result which hurts the snails is how I understand it. AVA! thank you thank you. I am going to the store for copper wire. What a wonderful idea. Thank you again.

nycquilter wrote:the chemicals in the snail combined with the copper cause some sort of electric result which hurts the snails is how I understand it. AVA! thank you thank you. I am going to the store for copper wire. What a wonderful idea. Thank you again.

I am worried that a wire might not be wide enough, the bands on citrus trees are an inch or more wide. Did you look at the link Rooster provided on this topic?

I don't know if it's fact or myth, I just posted a link that had recently been discussed about copper and snails. There are actually several around here:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t4065-copper-tape

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7833-slugs

From what I gather, snails have copper in their blood instead of iron causing some kind of disturbance...
I'm just offering up past threads on the subject for more information I think it's an interesting topic.

I'm guessing here , I haven't fully thought it through ...



It might be the amount of moisture in the air that determines whether the copper band is an effective barrier.

Damp might well mean any electric effect is neutralized / shorted to ground so the snails & slugs pass over it freely but a dry air could well stop them dead in their tracks as they would be part of the electrical capacitance circuit .

Or

It could be the other way round they make the circuit when things are damp for they'd kind of make a single cell battery when on copper and a damp surface.

AvaDGardner wrote:Yeah, Michelle, I didn't know how you missed that pun!

I'm a bit foggy in the brain right now; takes a while for anything to sink in.

re: The copper tape...I think Turan has a point, there is probably some variable that influences the efficacy of the tape. San Diego is typically a warm, dry climate, so what Plantoid said may very well apply. I did a quick search of scientific research summaries, and it turns out that the copper tape didn't do as well in England, which is typically a cooler, humid environment similar to environs of the NW. This was an interesting study that compared several more ecologically safe methods, not just copper tape.

I recommend reading this document; it has good information on comparison studies. The paper must've been translated by a scientific writer; it's written less like a scientific mumbo-jumbo study and more for the educated layman. If nothing else, skip down to the Results and Discussion section. You can view a HTML version of the DOC here: http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:SkX3CLrMAJ8J:scholar.google.com/+copper+barrier+snails&hl=en&as_sdt=0,10&as_vis=1

I am curious as well
Here is the UCDavis IPM notes on snail and slug management.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html

I've had great success with the

Iron phosphate baits—available under many trade names including Sluggo and Escar-Go

mentioned in the UC article. I have a gorgeous and large (<40 years old) lace leaf Japanese maple that the little shelled homewreckers decided was tasty last year. I was horrified, as this tree means a lot to me. I found Sluggo to be very effective in preventing their further attack, and found it worked right away -- I shook it out onto the ground, watered it in, and the snails left the tree alone.

One of the reassuring things I read about Sluggo was that it is used in organic gardens. I am not a purist in that regard, but definitely appreciated knowing that.

I'm in the really wet Pacific NW , so know from slugs and snails! Rotten little buggers.

My first year SFGing, I put a barrier of pennies around the top of my gardens. It actually worked pretty well, but since there was nothing to keep the pennies down, I now have coins all around/in my boxes And I actually found that the slugs somehow got used to the copper. I'm not sure why, but after a while it just stopped working!

So this year I bought some slug stuff similar to Sluggo. I'll let you know how it works!

We use Sluggo as well. Be careful if you do that you get the regular one and not Sluggo Plus, which is rather toxic to pets.

The copper stopped because it needs to be cleaned/refreshed with vinegar once in a while. I guess the timing would depend on your climate...more often where/when it is damp.

I read the other two threads...the video is interesting (is that Camp on the video?). The slug didn't like enough to continue on and sent back where it came from (off the copper) instead of continuing on to the box (nirvana!). I really like the velco (spiky side) idea that Shannon1 offered. It might need to be brushed free of 'wind lint' once in while. Velco comes in various grades/strengths, too. It would be interesting to see how it compares in cost to copper.

I haven't bought any copper yet, because I only have one or two in one box. They seem to like my peas. That box is too wet right now, anyway. Letting it dry is difficult with daily mist and the overhang of May Gray!