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Community Corner

A Snail's Tale, Part II: Controlling The Numbers

Snails in your garden can be amazingly destructive. Here are some strategies to keep them at bay.

As , snails are interesting little gastropods. But because they're so destructive, most gardeners are desperate for ways to control their numbers.

The trick to doing it effectively and safely is to use a home-based version of integrated pest management, which is, in a nutshell, "using a group of tools to control the problem, but using the least toxic tools first," according to Becky Lithander, regional program director of the non-profit Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition.

"Chemicals should be used last," she says.

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Here's how it works:

Identify 'em: Make sure it's actually snails (and not, say, earwigs or sewer rats) who are destroying your plants. How to tell? Look for the telltale snail trails.

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Trap 'em: You can rig easy, home-made traps by just leaving flower pots with holes in the sides or even upside down melon rinds in your yard at night and then collecting the snails the next morning.

You can also sink little containers of beer in the ground and wait for the snails to slide in and drown. Make sure the containers are deep enough that the snails can't crawl out (paper cups work well) and change the beer periodically to keep the level high and the smell fresh. "Snails love the smell of yeast," Lithander explains.   

You also can go out on a cloudy day or at night (with a flashlight) and collect them. Watering your garden in the late afternoon will help draw them out. Look especially carefully in popular snail loitering areas — in weedy areas, at the bottoms of tree trunks, on shaded boards and in dense ivy.

After you collect snails, you can crush them and leave them in the garden as fertilizer or put them in your Alameda County Industries green bin. If stomping on them makes you queasy, put them in a bucket of soapy water to kill them.

Deprive 'em of shelter near your most vulnerable plants — don't leave a pile of boards or dense ground cover right near your lettuce bed. Instead, use plants that snails don't find so attractive, such as begonias, geraniums, California poppy, nasturtiums, lavender, rosemary and sage. Many native ornamental grasses also don't attract snails.

Deter 'em: You can surround your plants with copper flashing to keep them away. The copper reacts with the snail's slime and creates something like an electric shock — or, as one nursery man told me, "It's like eating tinfoil with braces on." You can get copper flashing at gardening centers and hardware stores; just remember to pick snails and slugs out of the area before you surround it with copper.

Lithander notes that some schools are now using old pennies in their gardens to deter snails; old copper piping would also work (and lend a funky aesthetic to your lettuce rows). One note: the copper has to be kept fairly clean to work, so wipe off dirt and dust periodically.

Poison 'em: If you read my series on , you know I'm not a big fan of using poisons in the backyard. That said, you can buy snail and slug bait made with metaldehyde at any gardening or hardware store. Just know that if children, dogs, cats, birds or wildlife get into the poison, they can get very sick. If the bait also has carbaryl, it can kill beneficial insects, like earthworms and spiders.

Safer snail baits are made with iron phosphate — these aren't toxic to mammals or insects. "But you have to read the directions carefully," Lithander says. "Iron phosphate is a salt, and if you put too much on your soil it can be toxic to your plants."

Eat 'em: The ultimate slow food (get it?), snails also can be collected and eaten, but it's a long process. First you have to find them. Then you have to raise them for two weeks, giving them corn meal and veggies, so they can detox. Then you have to boil them for two hours. But hey, in the end you have escargot, which some people are very fond of.

Some chickens (as well as geese and ducks) also eat snails. My chickens eat slugs. But when offered a snail, they sneer at it like the those imported snails in the 1850s. Snakes, toads, turtles and other birds also eat snails; we don't have a big supply of the first three, but creating a bird-friendly garden will help with the latter.

Want more ideas? Go to Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition, Our Water, Our World, and the UC Davis Integrated Pest Management program.

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