"Good" snails, "evil" snails: Which species (not) fight?

Every garden owner gets an ominous twinkle in his eyes when talking about snails. The lavishly pounded salad in the cold frame, the zucchini pulled on the windowsill? Hardly they are in the bed on their own, ratzfatz eaten away. Snails! However, you can not denigrate them generally as villains. Because there is also a kind of snail police that keeps other species in check.

The snail police

In principle, one can say that snails with houses are harmless to the garden. In addition, they are protected in Germany by the bank and may not be fought. You should not. ? House snails? They prefer to eat withered, moss and algae and are only interested in fresh greenery. What they are but partly interested are the clutch of voracious slugs. There is also a species of nudibranch that cannibalizes other nudibranchs: the tiger snail or the big pecker. It is easy to recognize because the animal is up to 20cm long! So: snails and giant snails cherish and care! The following overview of nudibranchs and snails is structured according to their size.

Slugs:

Found field snail

Only 3-5 cm long, brown-gray and if you look closely, you can see a dark gray, reticular grain. These little guys have a huge appetite and can do massive damage. It is recommended to combat this species with nematodes.


Found field snail (Deroceras reticulatum)

Garden Slug

Becomes maximally 5 cm long, is dark blue to black-brown, the sole yellow to orange. Garden snails eat everything, the problem is that they also live in the soil and therefore erode plant stems or roots underground.

Garden Slug (Arion hortensis)


Spanish slug

A real culprit for vegetable and flower growing. It is 8-10 cm long, may be dark brown, gray-green or orange. Problem: It also eats highly fragrant or woody plants that do not touch domestic snails. So if you think "Hydrangeas, I'm on the safe side of the snail", did not expect the Spanish Slug. The second problem is that it produces extremely much and very bitter mucus that deters natural predators.

Spanish Slug (Arion vulgaris)

Red slug

It is up to 15 cm long, orange, dark red, dark brown and actually quite rare. She prefers to live in the woods and wet meadows rather than in the garden, where the Spanish slug is often confused with her.


Red Slug (Arion rufus)

Tiger snail (Great Schnegel)

The godzilla among the nudibranchs. He grows up to 20 cm (!) In size and has a striking, dark gray leopard pattern on his light gray-brownish body. Mostly the tiger snail lives at the edge of the forest, loves withered, carrion, the eggs of other nudibranchs and other nudibranchs themselves. So who has a tiger snail in the garden, has a natural snail fighter.

Tiger Snail or Great Schnitzel (Limax maximus)

cottage worm

White-lipped snail

A tiny snail of just 15 mm. Mostly they have a beige / brown striped house, sometimes there are no stripes. Even if she has an appetite for green, she can not do much harm to the size. Also: protected!

Garden snail (Cepaea hortensis)

Reddish deciduous snails

Are small, no more than 2-3 cm long and have nicely grained houses, which are reddish at the mouth. For the garden owner no danger, since the small snails have unfortunately become very rare.

Reddish leaf snail (Monachoides incarnatus)

Snails

Snails are so called because they need calcareous soils like the vines, so they can train their little houses. They also like green, but because of their weight, they usually do not get up the stems. In addition, they eat the clutch of nudibranchs. And they are protected. So: If you have too many snails in the garden, pick them up and put them in the vineyard. But please do not get the idea to eat it as a delicacy with garlic butter. Snails easily eat extremely poisonous plants, the poison of which then accumulates in their bodies. Edible snails come from breeding today!

Snail (Helix pomatia)

What to do against snails?

Slug fence

The best defense, but then you must also ensure that the area within the fence is snail-free (think of the partially underground garden snails). So look and collect in the evening. Individual plants can be protected with plastic buckets with edge (and without bottom).

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Make crawling difficult or impossible

Snails do not like dryness. That's why it helps to spread a wide ring of dehydrating materials to sensitive area? e.g. Sawdust? but this must be renewed after every rain and you have to be careful that the soil chemistry is not changed. Coffee grounds and wood ash are better, but perhaps the amount could be a problem.

Schneckenkorn

Slug grain only with active ingredient ferric phosphate, everything else harms birds, bees and earthworms.

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Favor predators

We have already learned a lot about tiger snails. Whose appetite does not stop even before the bitter Spanish slug, is the running duck. Well, who has a fenced garden and dear neighbors.

Absammeln

Snails do not appear until dusk, when the evil sun is gone. So pick up in the evening. You can also attract snails by laying out dead snails, which they like to eat. The danger, however, is that with the all-you-can-eat also attracts neighboring snails. You can also collect them in the famous beer trap, but that is really disgusting and the beer should be renewed at least every four days. What to do then with the slugs? Far away from gardens.

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