SNAILS, SNAIL CONTROL AND TREATMENT

Snail Biology

The brown garden snail is the most common in California Gardens. Slugs and snails are hermaphroditic, which means that all snails and slugs can lay eggs. Typically they will lay eggs twice a year which are about 80 glossy white eggs. During cold weather snails hibernate in the soil. However, snails and slugs also try to hide from heat and can be seen most often on cloudy and/or damp days.

Snail Identification

Snails and slugs eat a variety of different plants. Typically one could identify a snail infestation due to the irregular damage done to leaves and flowers. Snails prefer succulents over common foliage.

Pest Control Solutions for Snails

There are many effective ways to get rid of snails:

• Remove debris, such as, rocks, wooden structures, and ornamental figures that provide hiding spaces.
• Handpicking the snails on a regular basis. You have probably tried this unsuccessfully. Places boxes under trees with snails can be very effective as the snails will, en mass, move into the boxes to obtain shade. From the boxes, you will be able to scrape off many snails that found comfort from the heat in these boxes.
• Snail baits are effective, however baits with metaldehyde are poisonous to cats and dogs, therefore they should not be used in gardens, where animals can roam freely. Alternatively, recently released products, such as Sluggo, is effective and are labeled for use around domesticated animals.

• Introduce natural predators such as predatory snails. These predators, known as decollete snails, are an effective method of reducing the snail population. They feed on smaller snails, however they sometimes will feed on seedlings and small plants and can in turn become a pest.
• Barriers can be placed on trees to keep snails from crawling upward.

At Hearts Pest Management, we will be using Sluggo granules to manage the snail population in a manner that is sensitive to the various pesticide risk factors. We can also add manual boxes in locations we determine to manually collect snails. We can also use exclusion methods to keep snails off trees.

Snail References:

University of California Agricultural and Natural Resources. Dept. home page. 31 Jan. 2008. U of California, Davis. 29 Mar. 2 www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html

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