Snails. Is there a place in the world where a garden is free of them? If you have a chance to leaf through this site, you will encounter them time and again, as we have. Fireflies and their larvae eat snails and slugs but we don't get lightning bugs here. Here, snails and slugs will eat plants right down to the ground the minute they show signs of faltering.

This can be quite frustrating. When container gardening, plants are usually seen close-up. Many a morning I would walk out on the porch to find a cactus munched like an apple, only the spine bases and needles left on the ground with an eaten out green rind left on one side. People are often stunned to hear that something so soft bodied will prey on a cactus. I have some cacti with barbed spines as thick as fur that I can only repot using tongs. But in the morning shiny trails glisten on them showing clearly that the needles didn't discourage the snails at all. I can't help it, I always picture them saying "Ouch. Ouch. Ouch" all the way across.

It was snail damage on cacti that taught me the best lesson I've learned for dealing with them. Don't grow plants they devastate. They are highly selective. They wouldn't eat the closest cactus or the least naked cactus or one that seemed vulnerable because it was blooming. But instead, suddenly, they would attack one particular plant, crawling for yards up and over other plants to get to it. And they would return to the same victim night after night until it was munched. Others would not show even the tiniest test nibble.

I have to believe there was something about those particular specimens that were drawing attention. Though I couldn't necessarily see them faltering, the snails knew they weren't in peak form. So they took them out, which is just what Mother Nature intended them to do. The fact it was a newly acquired rare specimen that was going to bloom in about two weeks did not concern them in the least. So as time went by, I was left with a collection of plants that the snails didn't like to eat. And that's the kind of plants I grew more of.

I would list these for you but I bet it will just depend on your environment. I don't think it is a particular species of plant that is snail resistant, so much as it is any plant that is healthy and strong. When you lose something to snails, check what's growing next to it that they didn't eat. Grow more of that or a cousin of it if you're looking for variety. After a while, your garden will have been selected for snail tolerance and everybody will be happier.

Since we have been here our garden plants have met with snails over and over again. Marigolds often succumb, especially if they in transplant shock. In fact any seedling in shock for any reason is vulnerable to drawing attack. We saw off the top and bottom of plastic liter drink bottles and put the resulting 4" diameter rings around important transplants, like tomatoes. We press them in so the bottom is about 1" into the soil. This guards against cutworms but also seems to discourage the snails. I have no idea why. Perhaps the transplants are stronger in the slight shelter of the plastic, maybe the rough edge on the top is forbidding. Seems to work. We take these off before the plant is too big as the plastic will saw at the stems once they reach it.

Snails ate the tips off the lily sprouts but the lilies have come back, though their leaves are tattered. Now they are being left alone; I have no idea whether the flowers will be lunch for the snails or cut flowers for our table. The iris which was free of snails for a year is now being stripped to the ribs. This I find distressing. I've mulched them, as I thought the iris might be hungry post bloom but to no avail. So I've applied the best extreme snail solution I know, though it is a crisis of conscience every time. I step on them. Hard and fast.

It's the most merciful way I can think of to end their lives, it causes no harm to the environment and it returns their little pulverized remains to the soil right on the spot. I shudder every single time I do it, so most escape until they affront the garden in some way I can't ignore. Steve is less squeamish and there have been days he's gone out to find some choice seedling gone and the carnage was terrible to behold. He's not the least apologetic about it, either. He constantly makes plans for elaborate, electrified structures to go over the raised beds. There are alternatives.

We've tried copper bands in various forms. I've heard that this gives snails and slugs a slight electrical shock for sound scientific reasons that might as well be voodoo for all I understand them. In practice, this does seem to slow them down but must be 2" wide at minimum to be effective. 3" is better. We found the shiny copper tape worked best of the commercial copper barriers we tried. It also costs a small fortune, so it was only used on containers that held particular favorites. I won't kid you, snails will ignore it if they are feeling determined.

Beer in pie pans will lure in the snails where they drown. But I recently read snails travel quite far in a night and beer will draw them in from your neighbor's yard. So put it out in peripheral areas, not amongst the plants you are trying to guard. If you haven't tried this, yes, a dish of drowned snails in beer is as disgusting a sight as you think it is.

For the truly angered, there is the board method which is the most effective of all we've tried. It takes steel nerves. Put a board on two bricks so that it is two inches or so off the ground. During the day, the snails will crowd in, taking refuge in the damp shade. Every morning, lift the board from the bricks, jump on it hard, flip it over so the goo will dry and walk away content you just greatly decreased the snail population in your garden. This makes a crunching noise I cannot stand but Steve starts a campaign every so often and it does work.

You can also eat them. I am not about to and don't have exact instructions; if you do, let me know and I would be happy to add them here. I believe they are brought in and left to crawl about in a pan of cornmeal for a few blissful, pampered days until Mealtime. Certainly they were first introduced to California by a Frenchman who missed his favorite supper. Bless his soul.

Text and images Copyright 1998 Cyndi Kirkpatrick. All rights reserved