How to get rid of garden snails?

There’s always the old beer trick (beer in pie tins buried level with the ground), diatomacious earth,etc. The best one I found was make the garden a snake habitat. A few black plastic sheets spread on the ground for a warming place, some areas for them to shelter in if it got too warm, a water source, and they cleaned out the snails in a hurry.

Serve new Appetizers with each dinner:

Escargots in butter. Mmmmm

Once I put a thick layer of straw mulch around my seedlings the snails and slugs more or less left them alone. I guess they don’t like sliding over the prickly straw.

@Buttonstc LOLL love your answer. I did actually say to my SO ‘we could almost start our own escargot farm up here’. Wrong variety of snail though… I think !!
@Adirondackwannabe I am in the UK. Don’t think we have many snakes around here, but thanks for the idea of using beer.
@sarahsugs Yes that sounds like a good idea, thanks

My SO has just removed SEVENTY EIGHT snails from the garden. Help what is going on?

@partyparty The UK is probably snail heaven. They like the moisture, so if you can get rid of as much of that as possible, it should help. The beer thing works well here (NE USA). Put a few plates out with enough beer in them to drown the snails.

I was hitching my way across the country and pitched my tent behind a Husky station in Sault Ste. Marie. There was a terrible storm and I woke up to discover a foot of water rushing into my tent. Turns out I had camped in the middle of a seasonal lake. I barely made it to shore, and in the morning I had to wade out into the lake to recover all my belongings. Since everything was thoroughly waterlogged, I spread it all out on bushed and tree limbs to dry in the sun. I came back about an hour later and discovered that everything I owned was absolutely covered in a seething mass of slugs and snails, hundreds and hundreds of them.

So my guess is you’ve probably gotten a lot of rain and it’s flooded them out of the ground where they usually live.

On the bright side, they are probably quite edible. I hitched a ride with a French chef shortly after that snail/slug episode and he was disappointed I hadn’t collected and kept such an unexpected bounty. He told me when he’s out camping, he snatches any slugs or snails he finds and just sticks them on a rock right beside his camp fire until they sizzle and then he pops them in his mouth and eats them.

The survival book I use on the road says slugs and snails of all sorts are edible, but recommends that you starve them for 24 hours before eating them to allow them to digest anything they’ve recently eaten, so that you don’t end up accidentally ingesting poison oak or something. The book recommends stew as a good way to eat them. If you use the beer trick people have described, they’ll already be marinaded.

@SmashTheState Love your story about your camping episode. BUT I could never, ever, ever eat a slug or snail. I am retching at the mere thought of it. My SO has had to remove the 78 snails from our garden for me today.
think I might just have to go and be sick right now LOLL
BTW have you ever tried them?

I used Sluggo. It kills snails and slugs, but it’s non-toxic for humans and other animals. It also doesn’t lure snails and slugs like some other snail-killers do.

@DominicX Thanks for that. I must try to find it in the UK.

@partyparty Absolutely! I love snails. They’re delicious. I used to eat them a lot before I went vegetarian. Try them in your next stew. If you like clams and mussels, you’ll like snails. (The best way to have them is broiled in garlic, of course, but they have to be cooked just right or they become unpleasantly chewy. It’s better to order them at a good restaurant than try to make them properly the first time yourself and risk turning you off them for good.)

@SmashTheState I will have to take your word that they are delicious. I am retching again LOLL :-))))))

I once had snails in a really nice restaurant in D.C. and they were prepared with garlic and lots of butter. Delicious.

However, I don’t know of anyplace that serves slugs.

If you can eat oysters and clams then snails aren’t that different. But I’ve never been able to force myself to eat oysters or clams raw as some folks do. That’s just a Bridge Too Far for me. But the cooked ones. Yummm

@partyparty Had another thought. Do you get alot of frogs in your area? They will also eat slugs. You could setup a water feature like a small pool to encourage them to inhabit the garden. (I’m not up for eating them myself either.)

Beer…
Yeah it’s a waste… But the slugs and snails just can’t resist the brew…

@Buttonstc No I really couldn’t eat snails…. even if you paid me $$$$$. The mere thought makes me feel really sick. I can only think they are cooked in garlic to disguise the smell/taste. Never tried oysters either.
@Adirondackwannabe We actually have a pond in our garden, and I know we do have frogs. But as I mentioned earlier my SO removed 78 of these awful slimy snails yesterday. I think perhaps the frogs need to put in more work!!
I just don’t know how anyone could even think of eating snails. Yuck!!

I checked my Rodale’s Gardening book. Toads also eat garden snails. They also recommend yeast water and spoiled yogurt as baits. Copper wire around the garden beds works to keep them out. Or set out inverted clay pots to lure them in so you can catch them easier. Do you have diatomaceous earth in the UK?

@Adirondackwannabe Thanks so very much for all your help. Since my SO removed (now 86) of these snails, we seem to be on the winning side. I don’t really want to put slug/snail bait out, but do want to get rid of them. I may try the clay pots idea.
Sorry I don’t know about diatomaceous earth.

@partyparty diatomaceous earth is the ground up shells of diatoms, which are tiny sea crabs for lack of a better term. You sprinkle the powder around the plants you want to . The snails will not cross the diamtomaceous earth because the shell fragments will stick them. A good garden supply company should have it.

@partyparty that was supposed to be plants you want to protect.

@Adirondackwannabe Ah yes, I have heard that crushed up egg shells would also work. I must check out my garden centre to see if I can get some diatomaceous earth. If they don’t have any then perhaps they could get some for me. Thanks again.
I have spent so much time and effort in my greenhouse, growing my plants and flowers from seed. I just don’t want the snails to win out on me!! I think I am being a bit neutoric about this LOLL

@partyparty A good gardener is never neurotic. lol

@Adirondackwannabe Oh thanks for that reply. I feel better now.
BTW I still can’t swim, but perhaps one day….. LOLL!!

I use a Slug Bell, it looks good in the garden and keep slimy snails and slugs away from my plants !!

@bubblecat Wow never heard of a Slug Bell (I am in the UK). How does it work?

Is that like a Bell Jar ?