Re: What's with the snails?

This year is Snail heaven here too! We've had rain fall to late this year (it actually rained again yesterday). I've lived here for 7 years now- and prior to this year it has NEVER rained in June. This year, it's already rained twice. So the snails have devoured all of my hostas and about 3 weeks ago I just gave up and decided I'd have none this year. I kill all the snails i find. (on sunny days it is particularly satisfying to hurl then into the middle of the street where they will quickly cook or get eaten by the birds). Sorry to hear you are also being slimed by all these mollusks!

Theresa

MyTGoldens@aol.com wrote:

Hello Everyone! Long time no see me! It's Maddy Mason here, from Accord NY. I usually pop back up in the Summer, at the height of gardening season, then disappear to the depths of the other parts of my life for another year!

I hope this season finds all of you thriving along with your gardens! Now, this may not apply to everyone, since we all live in such vastly different climates and parts of the country, but here in the Northeast, or at least my little corner of it, we are so overrun with snails that walking around sounds like the crunching of snow, but it's the crunching of little snails!
We've lived here 5 years, and always had plenty of slugs to deal with. A few years ago we discovered the miracle of the new organic slug killers such as Sluggo, that use harmless iron phosphate very effectively. Well, harmless to other wildlife, which is good! This stuff works fairly well on slugs, although frequent applications are still necessary for good control. But where has this explosion of snails come from? (I noticed a lot of them last year, but this year is worse than ever.) The stuff doesn't work nearly as well on the snails, although it helps some. And it's not just my yard, due to some upheaval of the natural balance of things. I have neighbors here, and friends in other parts of NYS with the same problem.
My garden covers various sections of a good sized area of land (close to an acre), so barrier methods are useless. No matter what I do, I still find scads of the crunchy critters chewing up my irises, daylilies, delphiniums, Lupines, even hairy poppies, and anything else they can get their slimy teeth on. (Slimy teeth?) Keeping the ground very clear of litter helps some, but not all that much. And yes, I handpick, but, as with the Japanese Beetles scheduled for imminent arrival, I could do that the entire day and never get ANYTHING else done!

Anyone have a clue what might have caused this? We didn't even have a very wet Spring this year either. I think next year I'll get out the Sluggo much earlier. Perhaps that might put a lid on it, before it gets so out of control. I dunno!

Happy digging to All!
Maddy Mason
zone 5/6
Hudson Valley, NY (No, do not even THINK of telling me to eat them! )

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