Snail help please

[Lisasbolt]

I have some shelves in the PT, for raising seeds in cell trays, but i keep going out there and my poor baby seedling and just been completely eaten, we do not seem to get slugs but plenty of snails!! i have tried going out in the dark to catch them and often do snail searches, i have tried to find copper tape to no avail. Also have tried putting tray surrounded by a mote of water. Nothing seems to be helping. I know its snails as they leave their poo behind

Any advice please?????????

I am getting to the point of not even wanting to bother with lots of seeds and it is one of the parts i enjoy most. Think i have planted hundreds of brassica seeds this last year and only managed to plant out a few Even taking out my pepper seedlings and tomatoes.

[Bigmallly]

The only thing I can think of is protection with some kind of cover, whether it plastic or netting. Of course there are also pellets you could use.

[Nicos]

Here- have a look at this...might be worth experimenting????

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGaWs42ReR4

[roitelet]

Have you checked under the trays/ pots? I fling that it is the baby snails that do the most damage. It only takes one!!!

[Jungle Jane]

I grow sacrificial French marigolds about 50 plants last year,arrange them around your seedlings & slugs/snails will be attracted to those. If I've got lettuce or something in a pot,I surround it with geranium,marigolds,onion etc to hide the scent of the lettuce. The problem is they know exactly where to find their dinner every night,beer traps might help,I never have much bother with snails here,just lots of slugs in the summer.

[Lisasbolt]

Yes i have had a look, problem is there are literally 1000´s of them babies as well. So disheartening when you have been raising something for a couple of months and you go out and there is only a tiny stub stick out

[Lisasbolt]

Thanks for your help so far, keep it coming please

[Nannysally99]

I have to confess on using pellets, sparingly of course.
We put in too much effort to let the slugs and snails eat our crops
Good luck Lisa

[Aberdeenplotter]

I don't mess about when dealing with slugs and snails. It's all out war and all weapons are deployed. Nematodes, slug pellets, beer traps, liquid applications for non food crops(slugit liquid), manually picking them off and chucking in a bucket of salty water and even copper wire/tape. Never tried an electric fence mind.

[Zelenina]

The same thing was happening last spring to my plants that were outdoors in pots or newly planted in the ground. The culprits turned out to be thousands, maybe millions, of young Spanish slugs that were hiding under the pots or in surrounding vegetation, and coming out at night or in damp weather. It seems that the adults don’t survive our winters, but the eggs do. And they had a nice mild wet autumn to lay lots of eggs.

My main way of controlling them was collecting them at night, or during the day from underneath pots, and putting them in a bucket of very salty water. It kills them very quickly.

I also have a healthy population of leopard slugs in my garden, but they are supposed to be good guys and I haven’t seen them damaging any plants, so I leave them alone. That's why I don't use pellets or nematodes or beer traps. They don't discriminate between the good or harmless species and the bad ones.

The main common garden snails around here are Roman snails, and I have lots of those too. They are bigger than the common British garden snail. I used to keep some as pets when I was a kid in England. They were rare there then and are now a highly protected species, so I hate to kill them, and actually I don’t catch them eating my plants very often, except the horse radish leaves which they are welcome to. They seem to mostly prefer to eat decaying stuff and moss and algae. When I do find them eyeing up my veggies I just move them to one of my wild areas.

I don’t know whether you get Spanish slugs in your part of Spain, Lisa. Maybe it’s too dry there. Snails can survive better in dry places than slugs because of their shells, but they still need dampness to be active. They’ll just glide through your water moats and you’re actually making it easier for them to reach the seedlings, so get rid of those, or maybe make them very salty. Ideally to deter slugs and snails you need the surroundings as dry as possible, which isn’t always compatible with keeping your plants watered.

For germination and very young seedlings I think the easiest solution could be to use propagator trays with plastic lids. For older seedlings and plants, would it be possible to raise them up on wire racks? Maybe old oven shelves or cake cooling trays. Salt will certainly deter or kill snugs, but it will kill plants too if it gets absorbed into the soil so you need to be careful with it. Maybe you could put it in rings around the trays or pots, or underneath the wire racks if you use that idea, or fill your moats with salt and just a little bit of water.

I’ve heard of the copper tape method but have never tried it. If it works, I should think copper wire would work just as well and may be easier to get. If your shelves have legs you could try winding some around them.

For attracting snugs away from your plants, or attracting them so you can dispose of them, I’ve found that they actually like wilting or slightly decaying plants better than fresh ones. Maybe Almerian snails have different tastes, but you could try leaving a pile or two of cut weeds or veggie waste around and see what happens.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Lisa! Start collecting your Egg Shells!

Rather than having seedling trays sat on capillary matting etc, Get a tray with a base of crushed egg shells, put in a little water, place your seedling trays in there, with a little space around the edge, it works for me!

[Zelenina]

Eggshells, that's interesting Deano. Worth a try. Other things I've seen recommended, that snails don't like crawling over, are coffee grounds and sandpaper.

One other thing I just thought of, Lisa. Did you use new seed compost from a fresh bag, or did you use something that snails might have been able to lay their eggs in before you sowed your seeds in it?

[Lisasbolt]

100% fresh soil, i even hydrated it so there would not be any eggs in there. I will reply properly tomorrow but just wanted to say thank you in advance. I harvested a 2.7kilo white cabbage tonight and found about 40 baby snails (photo to follow of some)

[skeggijon]

I have my staging sat on gravel - that seems to stop the little blighters.

[Lisasbolt]

Dad and i went out this evening and we must have found 30 + , did not have the heart to kill them so they will make their way back there tomorrow