Why snails are bad

However, the fact that snails can carry diseases is something you should be cautious of. As I stated above always wear gloves when handling snails from the garden. The most common snail in the garden is the brown snail.

Brown snails love nothing more than munching on garden debris such as dead leaves and dead flowers. It is true that common brown snails can help to keep your lawn clean by eating up dead organic matter and they will excrete very beneficial nitrogen and nutrients into the soil, thus enriching it by adding the building blocks for healthy and vibrant plants.

So although it may seem like a good idea to leave brown snails rooming around your lawn it is probably a better idea to remove them. Snails may slither slowly in the garden, giving the impression that they are lumbering mollusks forever stuck to moving slowly over the ground, but the truth is that accessing juicy leaves on high plants, trees and shrubbery pose no problem to them at all.

Common brown snails will climb plants, and even tress, to reach new leaves, bark or fruit which they will devour mercilessly.

Any decollate snails you introduce to your garden will not climb any of your plants and will only feed on slugs, brown snails and ground-level organic matter usually dead leaves. Additionally decollate snails will release the same nitrogen and nutrients into the soil as brown snails do, so they give the garden all the benefits without any of the drawbacks.

Just as common brown snails can cause a lot of damage to garden plants they can do just as much damage, or more, to vegetables and fruits. Brown snails may release nutrients and nitrogen into the soil, which is very beneficial for plant, vegetable and fruit growth but the damage they cause well outweighs those benefits.

Decollate snails do a much better job. They too will release beneficial nutrients into the soil while helping clean up organic debris and while simultaneously feeding on brown snails and slugs.

Decollate snails cannot climb and remain at ground level meaning your new plants growths are safe. Although small snail populations will probably do more good, in the form of nutrient excretion into the soil, than bad, snail populations multiply very fast. So what was initially a benefit some becomes a major problem. For this reason it is best to try to eliminate brown snails from the garden rather than trying to control their populations.

Readers of this website will know that I am a big proponent for an organic approach in all gardening matters. No matter what the problem, if there is a an organic solution which there always is I will opt for that course of action first. If the organic solution does not produce the desired results I will turn to a more 21st century product-based approach even if that involves the use of chemicals always as a last resort though.

So below is the organic way to deal with snails please use this approach first and a more product-based way of dealing with the problem. I gave you four approaches to removing brown snails and slugs from your garden. They are:. Having a few around in times when you would like to enrich the soil quality to produce healthier plants may not be a bad idea.

Again, the key is to maintain and control your garden so that you can produce the best results possible. It is important to make sure that the number of snails and slugs in your garden does not get out of hand, but it is also okay to have a few around, so long as they are being monitored and removed if and when necessary.

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Before you go Read about the right way to water your vegetable garden. Are Snails and Slugs Bad for Gardens? What They Eat Snails and slugs eat a variety of different plants, fruits, and vegetables. They Reproduce Quickly Snails and slugs are hermaphrodites, meaning that they have both male and female reproductive organs.

Prevention Some of the regulatory methods listed above can certainly be used as preventative measures as well. There are a few other options available though when it comes to stopping snails and slugs from rampaging your garden: Get rid of some of the moist soil and debris that snails and slugs love in early springtime Water the plants only when necessary so as to avoid creating more damp places for them to gather Place copper tape or a copper powder lining around the perimeter Aside from this information, below is a list of the likes and dislikes of slugs specifically, which can help you to identify and create more ways to prevent them from frolicking in your garden.

Can Snails and Slugs be Useful in a Garden? For instance: Snails and slugs may be able to help us predict the weather. They are good scavengers when it comes to picking up plant and vegetation debris, Their feces provide rich fertilization for the soil. Most gardeners want to get rid of snails while leaving the soil composition and microbiome of their garden relatively undisturbed.

These gardeners need to look no further than the contents of their own pantry and garage. Natural items you may already have around the house can be used to create grating barriers that snails will be unable to pass over. Using irritating materials such as abrasive gravel, sharp eggshell fragments, diatomaceous earth, or rough wood chips will deter them from getting any closer to what they thought would be their next meal.

Both expert and amateur gardeners know that planning a garden often requires more than just a few trips to the nursery or hardware store. Next time you find yourself on such an errand, a quick walk to the electrical department might be in store.

Placing these items on the perimeter of your flower beds will block snails by causing an unpleasant, aversive reaction when they come looking for a bite to eat. Though our efforts to create a full, diverse garden may be well-intentioned, many of these plants actually provide top-of-the-line lodging for snails.

Filling flower beds with lots of ground-covering plants invites snails in with the promise of moist soil and shaded spots for them to reside. Decaying plants or leaves on the ground provide the same appeal. Their feces make a nitrogen-rich, mineral-laden fertilizer that enhances plant nutrition.

Of course, there are many ways snails and slugs are bad for your lawn and garden. They find their way up flowering plants to eat flower buds. They climb fruit trees and feast on fruit just as it is turning ripe. They strip bark off young trees and chew smooth, irregular holes through leaves. Or they just live underground and eat the roots like the Keel Slug. Slugs can be even more destructive. They may devour bulbs while they are still in the ground. They mow down seedlings as soon as they emerge from the ground.

They leave a slimy trail everywhere they go that attracts other slugs. While snail and slug damage to garden plants is bad, some things about slugs and snails in your garden are very bad. There is one very good reason every gardener needs to minimize contact with slugs and snails: They spread disease. Both garden snails and garden slugs are potential hosts of the rat lungworm , Angiostongylus cantonensis. This parasitic nematode primarily infects rats , with adult worms infesting the blood vessels that transport blood from the lungs to the heart.

Eggs hatch inside the rat, crawl out of the lungs and into its mouth, and are eventually discharged in feces.