Kitchen Garden Forum

Just wondered what everyone did regarding snails. At the moment I'm picking them off one by one by torch at night and putting them in a pot filled with wine or beer! It kills them but the smell after a while is appalling and it's hard to know where to put the resulting snail soup. I tried the compost bin but it made it smell like a rubbish tip in a hot country so now am digging holes in a back bed and putting them in there. But with a small garden this isn't really viable for long.

Anyone have an effective, non-smelly snail/slug removal method? Dont' want to use pellets...

A salt bucket?

When they develop into plague proportions I put them in a container and rehabilitate them in a nearby footpath which is banked with lush vegetation. Sadly our single visiting thrush seems to opt for the easier pickings I put out on the bird table. I tried putting a few of them on there for him but either they all crawled away before he came or he ignored them. Maybe if I'd crushed their shells first he would have eaten them but I can't bring myself to be this cruel.

I rehome mine too, but I'm sure if I numbered their shells I'd know which one won the race back each time. I just can't kill things. I sat on a wasp once and made sure it was OK and put it outside before I slapped vinegar on my bum.

:!: Warning

Chantal and Primrose should not read this.

Hi Bigp

Dare I suggest Eat them?

http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/fish ... paring.htm

No, it's not just me being daft again. The snails in your garden are edible. After all, they were reputedly brought here by the Romans in the first place.

Enjoy

Alan

Thank you Alan, and of course I had to read it. Maybe if I was on one of Ray Mears' survival courses and I was starving, I'd have to force myself to eat them. I tried them once as a teenager on my first school visit to France and it was like chewing rubber. Actually we were told they were mushrooms and not advised until after we'd finished the meal that they were snails. (Immediate exit of all pupils in direction of toilets to vomit !) In those far off days nobody ate "exotic" food and I'd never even eaten a mushroom so was none the wiser.With all that fasting and preparation, they're hardly "a quick snack". Do you eat them, by the way Alan?

At a guess, Alan eats them "Raw and wriggling!"


But then so do most of us with our lettuce.

Peter's got it right. But I prefer slugs with my salad - none of that crunchy shell to get stuck in the teeth.

Alan

p.s. the hens and ducks eat all the snails, so none for us anyway.

The funny thing is that I'm too soft-hearted to squash them (watched too much Magic Roundabout as a child), and I would cook and eat them without a second thought.
But it is a huge amount of preparation. I knew someone once who got very drunk with a friend and they dared each other to eat the snails out of the garden, which they did. But he said they tasted disgusting - like hibiscus! (Goodness knows how he knew what hibiscus tasted like. )
But really they're just land versions of molluscs, so if you don't have a problem with seafood, you shouldn't have a problem with snails. Properly prepared of course!

thanks for all your replies. I'm in an urban area so rehoming them would involve taking them somewhere in my car which seems eccentric even to me. I have no problem with killing them - is that terrible? – so might plump for the salt option though have to admit even I find the thought of literally burning them to death a little hard to stomach (somewhere drowning in alcohol seems kinder). But then, they're eating my beans to shreds so needs must...

As for the eating option. it's certainly worth considering... I have just started harvesting my garlic after all...

If you aren't bothered about killing them, why not just step on them? I'm sure there's plenty of wildlife around that'll dispose of the remains quickly enough.

Jump on them.

thanks but if I do that I fear it'll end end up like a skating rink out there! the paths are all brick and the whole garden is tiny. I'm still erring on the side of death by salt, but can't quite bring myself to do it yet so the snails are currently in a pot prison awaiting sentence.

Have to say, I lob them over the fence. Luckily for me (and my neighbours) there is a sort of copse of trees full of (hopefully full of) thrushes and froggies for the consumption of said molusces. I flick them onto my trowel and make a warped sort of sport of how far I can project them, lacrosse style. Slugs have followed a similar trajectory. Praps I should take a walk in the field behind my house to see if there's some sort of sluggy snaily slimy pile to be seen...... Hope they're not homing slugs/snails .... (not as daft as it sounds)

I seem to remember reading that Bob Flowerdew once made a snail prison from one of those old plastic washing baskets with a lid - the ones with a fine grid for walls. Into which was thrown all snails and weeds you shouldn't compost. Result - high grade compost!
Might be worth a try.