Snails targeting certain plants...

Ahh, snails. The nemesis of many a gardener.

The little buggers have been known to occasionally attack my cacti, but by-and-large will generally leave them alone. However, some plants seem to be constantly munched on by slimy critters, specifically one species of Opuntia (don't ask me which one, I found it growing in my compost heap!), Pereskiopsis spathulata and Echinopsis backebergii. Anyone know why this is so? Are some of my plants particularly delicious?

Lachy,

All of your plant are delicious to snails and they will eat any of them given the chance. The issue is some of the plants are harder to attack than others, some have too many spines or are a difficult shape but the most common reason is the skin is too tough / thick. Thick skinned plants are harder to munch through and thus are targeted less, it does not mean they will never be eaten they are just harder targets.

I have heaps and heaps of problems with snails at my place.....I hate them.

HN

Crackle crackle, squish squish.

I learnt this the hard way, they love most of my trichos.
Lesson of the day: dont put tricho pots next to vege garden.

Lachy,
You may want to consider putting down some snail pellets around your plants to kill the snails (and slugs too). I have used these with good results. Mind you be careful if you have pets/small children around which may frequent the treated area.

Cheers for the suggestion, Lewis. I generally dislike using any sort of pesticide in the garden however I have found some bait that is supposedly "pet safe". I've also moved some of the more attacked cacti to a place that should be less accessible to slimy critters.

My only gripe about snail bait is that if you have bluetounges in your area and they eat a baited snail it will digest and kill them. The above mentioned pets and children is not such a big issue as stated you can get petsafe versions.

I always found moving them up off the ground and REMOVE! any uneeded shady plants/ ground ferns or other such plants they will be lurking in away from where you grow your cacti. luckily I faced that problem last year. and now I have a great baren backyard to teraform into a giant cacterium. with not a snail in sight.... however now im facing burn issues as I have no shade.

You cant beat em.....so SQUISH EM!!

Well, I've tried a few things to deal with the snails, and as much as I hate to say it the metaldehyde-based baits seem to be the quickest-acting and most effective thing that I've seen yet. It's a shocker of a chemical, but it does the job for sure.

This is the result of an overnight rainfall and the subsequent tossing out of a few handfuls of bait...

My poor bridgesii!

Ah..so im not alone in having fresh new growth on bridgesii scarred up night after night,more slugs though than snails. I havent been growing many leafy greens lately to deter snail and slug population growth...but ever present to more or lesser degree.I havent been caught throwing them over the neighbours fence yet lol (dont worry they have no garden) that poison looks effective lachy

Yeah, it's definitely a real nuisance. The little buggers seem to prefer bridgesii and peruvianus to pachanoi and scopulicola (I wonder why..? ) and they really love the soft, juicy stems of chamaecereus, so much so that I've had to remove couple of plants from the garden bed that were just continually getting attacked.

I found that the slugs hid inside my pots of the plants they attacked ,accessed via the drainage holes. Gave the pots a soak in the laundry tub,drowned the blighters ,good for ridding pots of slaters also of which I have quadrillions...

They're all evil little blighters... Inasmuch as I really dislike using chemicals on my garden, I think the snails are leaving me with no option.

Have any of you tried copper strips or even bare copper wire...

...i've heard that it deters slugs, and i'm guessing it would also keep the snails at bay as well.

dvg

Grr... the snails are continuing to attack, despite my relentless use of bait. I think it's keeping the numbers of them down, but apparently my pach patch is absolutely delicious to the buggers at this time of year.

Quote :

Have any of you tried copper strips or even bare copper wire...

Does it count if the copper wire is hooked up to the mains supply?

Lachy wrote:

Does it count if the copper wire is hooked up to the mains supply?

It might not hurt...as long as you don't get across it.

If you have any stale beer, maybe leftover from a party or some such, you can pour some of that in a bowl.

The beer attracts them and then they drown in it.

They also don't make out too well trying to cross a line of salt either.

dvg