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How to stop feeding snails

lvs.pvtlvs.pvt Posts: 3
Is it just my imagination but are snails eating plants that they didnt eat previously? In the last week, they have consumed brunnera, cosmos, impatients, echinacea, phlox, gladioli; lillies and the list continues.  I cannot afford the time, money and effort planting what is effectively snail food.  I dont want to spread snail bait everywhere either.  Can anyone suggest perennials and annuals that snails definitely dont like to eat.  Thanks so much.


Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,280
    Corydalis lutea. The snails live under it but don't seem to eat it.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    IME, slugs and snails generally leave aromatic plants alone - herbs, geraniums, pelargoniums.
  • B3B3 Posts: 25,224
    Centaurea, penstemon, euphorbia, pulmonaria, wild marjoram, aquilegia, toadfla x, rock rose,many ornamental grasses, nigella, VB spring to mind.
    There are plants like lupins, lobelia etc etc that i would love to grow, but as they are slugs delight, I don't even bother to try.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601

    No, it isn't your imagination, although the culprits are probably slugs, not snails. In recent years some varieties of slugs from Europe have become established in this country and show little regard for our traditional 'slug-proof' beliefs. You will find them eating a much wider range of plants and they also have a taste for flowers, even where the leaves are not touched. They are tolerant of a wider range of temperatures, too, so may be active earlier and in drought.

    The best way of dealing with them is to pick them off with a (gloved!) hand and pop them in a bucket with an inch or two of very salty water. Some people here snip them with scissors, but this is too revolting for me and I don't want the remains all over my garden.

  • B3B3 Posts: 25,224
    The remains soon disappear. Something always eats them😋
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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