Relocating snails

Gers

Eek ! When I looked at the collection from last night the bucket was empty. On my second trip this morning I got a huge one, put it in water and left it. When I went back after 10 minutes it was climbing up the steep bucket. :eek:

I did a scoot around the internet and found that snails can survive in water for about 24 hours - in fact they are transported in an aquatic environment when shipped.

It's now out in the cow field but I be the ones from last night are free. Shawkshank Redemption for snails.

DaftyDuck

Encourage the birds, particularly thrushes. If you can stick a rock in the middle of the lawn (not so big you can't lift to cut), and pile your snails up around it, they'll cling to it rather than try to trek across the wilderness of a lawn. Thrush will arrive, use the stone as an anvil, and eat the lot.

DigForVictory

Unless you relocate the blighters to at least 20 meters away, they come back. Says she, the unwilling banker of "snailfarmer" offspring, who took our bounty of 10p a snail & emptied his catch across the road & down a 10' wall into a park. When we realised this was costing us as much as our electric bill that month, we called a halt.
Now snails get flying lessons with a rubber band catapault, or taken for a walk to school past a field of chickens. I gather chickens like fresh snails...

Gers

DigForVictory wrote: »

Unless you relocate the blighters to at least 20 meters away, they come back. Says she, the unwilling banker of "snailfarmer" offspring, who took our bounty of 10p a snail & emptied his catch across the road & down a 10' wall into a park. When we realised this was costing us as much as our electric bill that month, we called a halt.
Now snails get flying lessons with a rubber band catapault, or taken for a walk to school past a field of chickens. I gather chickens like fresh snails...

Yes, am doing that now, after the failed attempt at drowning. Now chickens...as I live on part of a farm the farmer's wife keeps chickens so I may pop down the road to ask about offering them up as a sacrifice. Though, on reflection, perhaps not. They eat the chickens and sell the eggs...think of the diet!

Davesnave

Gers wrote: »

I may pop down the road to ask about offering them up as a sacrifice. Though, on reflection, perhaps not. They eat the chickens and sell the eggs...think of the diet!

They won't be bothered. My chickens eat worse things than snails: flies, mice, shrews, newts...basically anything small that moves...except slugs. They know about slug slime!

Gers

No 'new' snails for two days now... but I know they must still be around so have resorted to good old slug / snail pellets and just hope that the birds don't eat them. The pellets are pale blue so perhaps the birds won't identify them as edible.

I'll continue my patrolling though, just to make sure!

Davesnave

Gers wrote: »

No 'new' snails for two days now... but I know they must still be around so have resorted to good old slug / snail pellets and just hope that the birds don't eat them. The pellets are pale blue so perhaps the birds won't identify them as edible.

I'll continue my patrolling though, just to make sure!

Birds don't do that. The pellets aren't attractive to them. The fear is that metadehyde builds up in the bodies of birds which have consumed many snails.

Evidence that this happens is, however, thin on the ground. The RSPB even have a code of practice for pellet use, rather than engaging in outright condemnation.

Seems most plausible in relation to thrushes, I think.

theoretica

I just pop snails into a wide mouth bottle (eg milk) and put them in the bin a couple of pints at a time. Saves the mess of squishing them and I have nowhere convenient to fly them to.

Gers

Davesnave wrote: »

Birds don't do that. The pellets aren't attractive to them. The fear is that metadehyde builds up in the bodies of birds which have consumed many snails.

Evidence that this happens is, however, thin on the ground. The RSPB even have a code of practice for pellet use, rather than engaging in outright condemnation.

Seems most plausible in relation to thrushes, I think.

Thanks again Dave - no thrushes so that's OK. I've scattered a load of dried mealworms to tempt them away from the pelleted area.

stumpycat

Davesnave wrote: »

They won't be bothered. My chickens eat worse things than snails: flies, mice, shrews, newts...basically anything small that moves...except slugs. They know about slug slime!

Do your chickens do that look of disgust & beak-wiping on the ground after eating a slug?

The most revolting noise I've ever heard was a chicken eating a huge slug... :eek:

I seem to have sorted out the slug problem by paying my son 2p per beastie (5p if it was particularly big & gross) to wander round the garden at night wearing a head-torch and drown them in beer.

He made a fortune as there were hundreds of the damn things.

He won't kill the snails though - and keeps some as pets... he just found one which he had marked with paint 2 years ago.

Now we've collected a bucketload & are going to mark them with paint & re-locate them to the woods on the other side of a field at the bottom of our garden.
Let's see if they make it back!