Snails -Disappearing ?

[tali1]

For several years , ive noticed a lack of snails in my front and rear gardens.I see slugs , but in the last 7 years i think i have only seen less than 10 snails.I've looked in all the places at night such as damp areas , pots, under wood etc.Anyone else noticing a huge lack of snails ?

[jazzyjen]

It’s the other way round for us! We have plenty of snails as usual. There are however loads less slugs.( I think we have hedgehogs now).

[gness]

You're spot on, Tali. If you have a google around for disappearing snails you'll see that hundreds of snail species are disappearing.
Good for my hostas maybe but I don't like to see creatures disappearing from our planet....well except for snakes maybe.... ;-)

[roopower]

Do you want some of mine?

[Milo2]

It’s also the other way round in my garden. Lots of snails but only a few slugs.

[Ringlet]

Exactly the same thing happened in my garden - it started about 5 years ago. There used to be dozens of snails climbing the wall of the garage in the evening to get to their overnight shelter in the eaves. During the day I would often see a thrush breaking the shell of a snail to eat the contents. There are no snails now and no thrushes either.

I asked a few people whom I thought might know the answer to why the snails had disappeared. One suggested that hedgehogs might have moved into the area - there have always been one or two hedgehogs around in the gardens but no sudden influx to explain the sudden disappearance of the snails.

Someone else suggested that when snails disappear you can be sure rats are present. This shook me up and I watched carefully and put down humane traps but no rats were seen or caught.

Although the snails were a nuisance on the hostas I never interfered with them and we lived our lives in harmony. I miss them.

I do see some slugs in my garden, but not nearly as many as there used to be.

I have often wondered what I did to banish the snails and slugs.

[bhg481]

Perhaps it's the shortage of affordable housing. After all, slugs are just homeless snails, aren't they?

[burlyshirley]

I have always had snails and slugs in my small garden and this year has been no exception, they are a nuisance when it comes to my bedding plants, but I live and let live because the birds will sometimes eat them. A tip for slugs and snails, I read that they do not like hair and as my dog moults a lot in the summer, I have been putting her hair down at the base of the plants !

[AuntPG]

Plenty of snails in my garden, I pick them off the veggie plants and throw them in the field but I think they all come back lol! I've hardly seen any slugs (thankfully) but our pond was full of tadpoles this year, and probably the froglets are feasting on them. Also I've realised we have a family of hedgehogs somewhere as I turned the light on in the barn late one night and mummy hedgehog was scoffing the cat food.

[burlyshirley]

Aunt - I have read a few times that the snails you throw away, do in fact come back ! Seems like an amazing feat to me ...

[Peter Pedant]

er snals voting with their foot?
as Lenin might have said....

[tali1]

I've noticed a lot of slugs on street trees at night - but curiously never any on the tree in my rear garden! Also slugs are very attracted to wet cat food that i leave outside

[gness]

Thanks, Tali. Haven't seen a snail since moving to Kerry. Some small slugs and of course the rare and protected Kerry Slug.
Protected it may be but I trod on a sticky one with bare feet as I entered a dark room.
It concertinaed up between my toes and sadly didn't survive my efforts to prise it out.