The Ole Snail Inn

 

Ah snails.... I once collected them (to use in a university experiment) on top of my akubra hat while walking in the rain.  Did you know that you don't need ethics approval to use snails in experiments? Not that I hurt them, just wanted to know whether they would eat my native tree leaves. They didn't, but they do eat my vegie seedlings these days.

 

I've tried being organic in my garden, but snails have always beaten me. The last couple of years I've used snail bait just so I could get some veg. This year however, I don't want to. I'd like to go out and have a chat with the snails and explain what they can and can't eat, but I don't speak gastropodian. So I have to deter or kill them some other way.

 

I've decided to take a threefold plan of attack. Method one is gumboot stomping. I rather like this one. I go out in the garden on damp mornings in my gumboots (preferably with a cuppa and still in my Pjs, it works better) and I stomp on any snails I find. They're easy to find too - on the driveway and lawns making their way back to shelter after munching plants all night. I used to collect them for my chooks instead, but my chooks are real Aussie girls and don't go for French food.

 

Method two is untried, but i'll give it a go. I found this method in Jackie French's 'Earth Gardener's Companion'. You collect a few snails in a bucket, pour over boiling water to kill then and then leave them in the wate for a few days to ferment. Then you spray the fermented snail soup on and around the vegie garden to detract the soup-ees friends. Ewwww.... But i'll give it a go. (you need to respray every time it rains or there is a heavy dew though).

 

My third method is the good old beer method. If you don't know about this, basically, snails are like most men - they are crazy for beer. The very smell of the stuff makes them come running (well, sort of). But, being gastropods, they're not overly bright (like some men) and given a puddle of beer, they will dive right in, get drunk/drown and die. This is supposed to be a good and effective way to rid your garden of the buggers, but if you just put beer out in a saucer, it'll evaporate on hot days or get washed away on rainy days. So some clever person invented these:

image from here, where the price tag isn't too high :)

Nice huh? But they come with a price tag, so I'm not keen. Some other smart cookie came up with this:

Image from here, with a tutorial if you like them.

But we don't drink much soft drink and I have other uses for the soft drink bottles we do use. So I came up with this:

 

We have heaps of milk bottles, so I can make heaps of these and they only take 2 minutes to make. Here's how.
 

• Cut the bottom 5cm or so off the bottle with scissors or a sharp knife.
• On the top part of the bottle, cut doors for the snails that are about 8cm high on each side.
• Add a jaunty sign to welcome snails in (or not....).

• You're done!
• To use it, bury the base into the soil near your seedlings so the top is near the soil top.

• Pour in some beer (perhaps some of your husbands home brew?).

• Push the top of the bottle in.
• And wait.

 

Hopefully the next day you'll find smiling dead snails in there.

 

Have fun!

 

PS. If you don't have beer, you can use a mix of yeast, sugar and water. Snails are dumb, they won't know the difference.