Today's subject is Snails. EWWWWWW! My garden is FULL of these disgusting creatures and so (for some reason that I'll never be able to understand) it has become "cool" in our neighborhood to have a "pet" snail. WHY? We don't know. I'm just trying to figure out how to get rid of them without exposing my children or the neighbors to poison and, more importantly, without TOUCHING THEM! They give me the willies. Even more than mice which is really saying something. (For some really delightful stories on THAT subject, please inquire. Just be ready to be freaked out and disgusted.) There is a spot on the north side of my building where, I KID YOU NOT, there are at least 50 snails all happily living together and, dare I say it, breeding.
One website I found posed the question, "what is there to like about snails and slugs?" (In my heart I thought ewwwwwww") Their answer: "Watch a slug in the afternoon effortlessly glide across the ground with it's feelers swaying to and fro..." SHIVER SHIVER. Yuck!
In my endeavor to eradicate them, I have done some research. Here are some of the suggestions I found: (Which do you like?)
- Soak a piece of cardboard in water and leave it in your garden. Wait overnight, flip it over, and scrape the live wriggling snails off into a tupperware. Freeze for 4 hours. Dump into compost heap.
- Poke it with a sharp stick.
- Put a pan with just enough beer in it to drown the slugs in your garden. They are attracted to the smell.
- Put copper tape around your garden. When the snail passes over it, it will create a small electrical charge that is "unpleasant" to the snail. Human hair can work as well.
6 comments:
Snails are a nuisance! They ate all my zuchinni last year and so I say...GET 'EM! I like the cardboard idea, mostly because I'm interested to see if it would really work.
eeewwwww! (and I plead "guilty" by the way. But don't even pretend that you don't do it too!)
Our cement curbing is I-15 for snails in our back yard. They are ewww!
Abi was going towards one to eat it the other day....yeah...it was gross. she also tried to eat an ant yesterday but thankfully the ant was quicker.
As chance would have it, I just read up on snails the other day on Wikipedia. I was wondering how on earth those nasty buggers actually get in your yard. It is not like they could go across the street without getting cooked.
Anywho, snails breath through a hole in their back, so you need to make sure you have enough beer to cover their blowhole. I think salt is the best way to get rid of them though.
PS, they reproduce like 3 times a year, so wipe them out all the way or they'll be back again.
Richard
One of the websites I read said that they grow spontaneously from the dirt!
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