We have had an infestation of mega snails, hoping someone can shed some light to this. Wife planted up a tub of marigolds a couple of weeks ago, next morning, decimated and 7 large snails in tub. We've been putting down slug pelletts ever since and killed off the ones from first incident. Then after 2;3 weeks of drought we had rain last night, went out this morning and found front garden littered with dead snails. Now these aint the banded black and yellow garden snails that the thrushes love, these are big heavy buggers, dark brown, never come across them before. Is this a new phenomenon, global warming? Ihave photos, intended posting one but forgotten how on here. Anyone care to help?
John
I know nothing about snails John, but to post a photo...
http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8388.0
Alex
Hopefully a photo
They are Common Garden Snails.
http://www.uksafari.com/gardensnail.htm
We have loads of them in our garden too :)
Those are money snails John. See how they are stalking the 1p piece?
Alex
Look like a variety of common garden snails.
Forget the slug pellets and pesticides. Collect any you find live. Grade them by size. Look up cultivating snails on the web. With the largest, put in a dark covered moist container and feed lettuce or cornmeal for a couple of days. This will purge them.
Wash thoroughly, blanch for a minute in boiling salted water, pan fry with butter, olive oil, garlic butter, chopped onion and herbs for ten mins and enjoy with a nice glass of wine and some bread of your choice.
Fatten up the wee ones with cornmeal, breed them and start a snail farm.
If you can't be bothered with this just collect them, give me a ring and I'll come and take them away. :wink: :)
Quote from: haresear on June 24, 2010, 11:38:38 PM
Those are money snails John. See how they are stalking the 1p piece?
Alex
Closer to the truth than you realise Alex.
guest
That had already crossed my mind. Any idea how fast they grow? I Imagine it must take a good time to grow such a large shell but I've never seen these in the garden except for 2 last year, now they're all over the place. Definately need to try my culinary skills on them.
Did a quick google and came up with this.
http://www.hub-uk.com/interesting02/snails.htm (http://www.hub-uk.com/interesting02/snails.htm)
This is about a couple of French farmers who use Gros Gris North African snails and says theytake about four months to mature. I guess further googling would turn up more detailed info on farming British garden snails.
Seems to do it commercially is quite an intensive business but " from tiny snails tasty l'escargot grow " or so they tell me. :roll: :)
Hi John,
I remember only ever seeing those big snails near the coast when I was younger (no, not on the beach). But over the past few years have noticed a lot more in gardens around Glasgow.
cheers
Paul
Think I'll stick to the McEwans export and the slug pellets.
and if you're wild camping how about this
www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Unwanted-garden-snails-cooked-by-gardener.html
SNAILS IN WILD HERBS
Using a good book, collect seasonal weeds. Wash and chop finely, then
Blanch for 5 mins the wild herbs you can lay your hands on.
I used the following:
Water parsnip (but make sure it is, similar substitutes could be fatal)
Wild sorrel
Water cress
Nettle tips
A little ribwort plantain.
Sieve , pressing out the water.
Finely chopped ramsons
(if in season, otherwise use onion or garlic with the blanched herbs)
Add all these to melted butter.
Put a snail in each hollow of a snail plate and add as much paste as possible.
Bake for 20 mins.
Serve with cubes of bread and salad.
Probably goes well with rice or noodles!
What! No Safron? Or Cous Cous?
For what it's worth, 'Growing Success' slug killer is pretty good and is ''environmentally friendly'' - which simply means it doesn't have metaldehyde in it (the stuff that kills cats - Sandy take note!). There are other varieties of this around as well, but some contain some nasty salts, so read the label first.
These snails are a nuisance, but can be a valuable food source for birds (look for thrushes' anvils - seen loads this year!). As has been posted they can be successfully harvested and cooked.
There's quite a lot of colour variation around, and I recall someone doing some ecological research on this a couple of years ago, but can't find the reference now.