so many snails!!

after visiting my sister's california gardens this week, i was overwhelmed by the number of snails infesting everything in sight! she uses snail bait, beer, and wire rings to kill or repel them, but some methods seem so cruel. is there a humane way to rid her garden of the snails? she doesn't mind just killing them, but they must serve some good purpose, right?

There is a product I use for our local slugs. It is a snail bait that is safe around wildlife and pets. It is iron phosphate in some sort of small oat pellet. The slugs eat it and the iron phosphate stops them from feeding. Of course, this isn't necessarily humane either, but at least the slugs will go back into the soil as fertilizer, and you don't have to worry about the birds, etc. getting poisoned.

I know of this bait by two names: "Escargot" & "Sluggo". You should be able to find it in a garden center or order it online from a garden supply catalog. Check to make sure it is recommended for snails, as well, but it must be.

to get rid of slugs my favorite ways are a hot slate roof, hot black top, boiling water etc.

humane? sorry i guess you have never had the little &^%$#@*&
eat 4 entire seed flats of basil in one night or had 23 mature fruiting habanero plants and every other pepper you picked had one of the little %^$#&^% eating a hole in the other side

but yes they do serve a purpose to feed toads

I go out in my yard and look under any damp place or rock or hiding place slugs like and gently put them into a container while trying not to get the heeby geebies. I then take em down to a desserted old farmhouse and dump them in the deep grass.

After that any slug I find in my yard is dead meat, but at least I tried to spare as many as I could. There is an extent to my humanitarism.

you could try egg shells,pecan shells, or broken up pine cones around plants or in your flower beds if you don't want to kill em.

Copper wire works really well. But, don't let your plants hang over it or the tricky little beasts will use it as a bridge and there goes the ball game. We tried killer snails to eat the regular snails but then they grow quite large and multiply and then you have to keep them well fed with decaying plants or they will eat your seedling. Oh woe...You wouldn't think snails would be a problem on the desert.

We are all of a sudden infested with snails!!! Little suckers...I have no pity on them! Beer does not work and I use Sluggo because I have a puppy. And I just read of another method that I tried...it repels them. I used it on my container plants becuse you obviously couldn't mix up enough to do your entire yard! Here it is...
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups water.

Mix all this in a blender. Let it sit overnight. Strain. Spray on plants. Also good to repel aphids. I'll let you know how it works...but worth a try!

I just bought Sluggo..it is supposed to be safe.

i saw my first slugs this year in my garden. god they are disgusting. so toads like them huh? well i'm certainly glad that we have a small body of water behind our house in the woods. we hear the frogs singing all night long. it is a beautiful song and you just made it more beautiful by telling me that they are singing while they are eating those disgusting snails.

purpleice, how can you touch them? ooooh disgusting. i'm definately an insect phobic personality. :)