How serious is finding tiny snails in your plants?

[silence882]

Hi all,

I am an indoor grower and have found a few tiny snails in the past couple months on my plants. On a scale of don't-worry-about-it to kill-it-with-fire, how concerned should I be? Their shells are about 5 mm across. I have no idea where they came from as they showed up when I hadn't gotten new plants in a long while.

Thanks for any advice!

--Stephen

 

[CarlG]

Kill them with fire. They reproduce with enthusiasm, eat roots and flower buds, and generally are [almost] as big a pest as squirrels.

You can get them from bark - the eggs will survive dry for some time.

 

[silence882]

Kill them with fire. They reproduce with enthusiasm, eat roots and flower buds, and generally are [almost] as big a pest as squirrels.

You can get them from bark - the eggs will survive dry for some time.

Thanks! Any advice on what to use to kill them?

 

[littlefrog]

Trap the adults with a romaine lettuce leaf. You can use the same leaf for many days, just pick off the bush snails, squish, replace leaf.

Or, try submerging the whole pot in some water with a little bit of detergent. Adults will come to the top. It may or may not get the eggs. Repot. Snail eggs are fairly large, you can actually see them pretty well, they come in clusters.

If you let them get established in the collection, you will probably never be able to get rid of them. There are worse pests, but these little guys are pretty evil.

 

[abax]

You can try diatomaceous earth sprinkled on the
top of the pots and around the growing area. It's
not necessarily fool proof, but DE is relatively
safe. You can usually find DE at Lowes, Target
and perhaps at Wal-Mart in the garden section.

 

[KateL]

I use the pet safe formulation of Sluggo (not the Sluggo plus) and it is very effective. Basically, it’s iron phosphate and can even be used in organic gardening.

 

[Ray]

Bush snails are not attracted by iron phosphate baits. Measurol is the way to go.

 

[KateL]

I defer to Ray.
(My little snails must have been different ones, because it worked for me.)

 

[Ray]

I tried iron phosphate baits, and the bush snails were not attracted to it at all, and my limited experience is what made me recommend measurol.

 

[silence882]

Thanks for all the advice! I'll give the measurol a shot and hope it kills them.

 

[fibre]

Does anyone of you has ever seen a real damage by these little snails with your own eyes??? I have lots of them but I NEVER spotted any damage caused by them. They eat old leaves that I have overseen between the pots and help decomposting them. There is no problem for my Paphs to live with these little snails and there is no need for me to treat with pesticides.

 

[awesomei]

Same for me. I don't see them often. But, have never seen them damage any living tissue. Slugs on the other hand can be very destructive. I use deadline for sluges. I just paint it on the rim of each pot. It attracts and poisons them. It may like snails as well. Thus, I see so few???

 

[Ray]

Does anyone of you has ever seen a real damage by these little snails with your own eyes??? I have lots of them but I NEVER spotted any damage caused by them. They eat old leaves that I have overseen between the pots and help decomposting them. There is no problem for my Paphs to live with these little snails and there is no need for me to treat with pesticides.

Yes, I have seen them eat flower buds - or at least ruin them.

 

[Guldal]

I can wholeheartedly concur with those of you, who go for the 'fire and brimstone'-approach, as I in a nursery have seen the damage, that can be done by snails when undetected. I also agree with the comment, that slugs might be the worst of the lot.

Fortunately, I have only in a limited measure had to deal with this sort of pest in my own collection (as opposed to mealy bugs, that I in periods really have had to fiercely struggle with). With the few snails and slugs, I've had, mechanical pest control have been sufficient: thin slices of carrots placed in the top of the pot and then at an appropriate interval removed (together with the snails/slugs) and replaced (littlefrogs romaine lettuce leaf proposal might help vary the diet in the trap). If the infestation is too advanced and too comprehensive, you might have to turn to other means: drowning as described by littlefrog (repeating the procedure x more in accordance with the snail's hatching cyclus) or chemical warfare.

Good luck!

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Just a side note. I don't believe that just anyone can purchase mesurol.

 

[luvsorchids]

I agree with Bob. I had a friend trying to purchase it and couldn't in the U.S. On the other hand, I did somewhat recently see a small article in the AOS bulletin that says these snails are attracted to the yellow sticky insect paper and stick to it. I don't have any personal experience with this, but might be worth a try.


Susan

 

[Silverwhisp]

I agree with Bob. I had a friend trying to purchase it and couldn't in the U.S. On the other hand, I did somewhat recently see a small article in the AOS bulletin that says these snails are attracted to the yellow sticky insect paper and stick to it. I don't have any personal experience with this, but might be worth a try.


Susan

I have had a couple of them stuck on yellow sticky paper.

 

[NYEric]

I have seen them destroy roots and leaves. Kill all and watch out if they've laid eggs!

 

[silence882]

I have a small collection of plants packed in a tight space. I am also deeply sentimentally attached to it. So when I see a threat, I tend to go flamethrower immediately.

In this case, I'm going to start with chemical warfare, wait a while, and then use lettuce or carrots to see if the problem has been solved.

 

[abax]

I've seen part of a Phal. species collection destroyed
by bush snails. Measurol was the only thing that
killed them all after two drenchings.