Despite its being considered as an edible species it is regarded as a “pest” when it is referred to gardening. If you are a gardener then treat the “Garden Snails” better as a pest and not as an edible tasty, delicious food item. Some people also like to preserve mollusks including garden snails as they look good and pleasures. But for a gardener the garden snails are no less than an enemy.

An adult garden snail will be having a hard, thin calcareous shell with a diameter of about 25-40 mm and almost 25-35 mm height. A typical shell will also have four or five whorls. Color however could vary and the garden snails may show varying shades as well. Normally these are dark brown or chestnut in color with yellow stripes, flecks, or streaks.

Garden Snails generally have smooth, soft, and slimy body with brownish-grey tint. This is what you must have noticed in your garden also. When inactive or protective the animal withdraws itself within the shell. Aperture or the mouth of these shells gets closed when faced with adverse weather like extreme cold or dry summers. When the animal becomes active its head and feet come out of the shell.

Head of the garden snails have typically arranged four tentacles. Two of these tentacles bear eyes of the animal. These are upper tentacles and are longer also. The lower tentacles pair is smaller, tactile, and functions as sensory organs for the animal. These lower tentacles can easily be retracted in to shell by the animal.

Immediately below the tentacles there exists animal’s mouth. Mouth contains a chitinous radula. It is a material that the snails use for scrapping and manipulating food particles. This is primarily responsible for any damage to your plants in the garden as snails would use it for grabbing their food from plants.

Muscular contraction of foot and its expansion created a locomotive action and this is how snails move. During these locomotive action snails also secret mucus that keeps the friction at minimum. Snails can attain a top speed of 1.3 centimeters per second.

Reproduction in garden snails is hermaphroditic, producing both male and female gametes. After exchanging sperms both male and female snails will dig a nest in the soil and then deposit their fertilized eggs there. It takes almost two weeks that the young garden snails emerge out of the nests. Further one or two years it will take them to reach at maturity.

As a gardener you should be concerned over the existence of these garden snails in your garden. Reproduction of garden snails would seriously affect the quality of soil in your garden also.

Garden snails are herbivorous. They cause damage to numerous types of plants including fruit trees, vegetable crops, garden flowers, and cereals as all these are their food materials.

So, if you have noticed the presence of garden snails in your garden then you should consider ways to eliminate them and finish up with any chances of further growth of their populations. You must have a garden snail’s free garden.

Garden Snail Pictures

Garden Snail Videos

Garden Snail	Cheesy Eating a garden snail
Garden SnaiL	This is what an English garden snail looks like

Garden Snail Question & Answers

Garden Snail Question: 1

What is killing my impatiens?

I bought 0 worth of impatiens and planted them where they only receive morning sun. I've been watering to establish roots but only every few days. Four days later, some of their stems are withering and breaking off. I found some garden snails in them and blaced bowls of beer around to kill. They did not go to the beer. I put Slug-go on the ground. No more snails, but they are still withering and breaking at the stems. They just disappear!!! I have three pots full of them and am not having any problems with those guys. What is the problem?? What can I do to save the existing ones?No aphids. I looked.

Answer: 1.
sounds like fungus. make sure that they are not too wet at night and not covered to the stem in mulch. water them early in the morning.
Answer: 2.
take a very close look under the leaf and stems, you may have aphids
Answer: 3.
Try watering them more often.
Answer: 4.
chipmonks and squirrels - get a dog

Garden Snail Question: 2

What is killing my impatiens?

I bought 0 worth of impatiens and planted them where they only receive morning sun. I've been watering to establish roots but only every few days. Four days later, some of their stems are withering and breaking off. I found some garden snails in them and blaced bowls of beer around to kill. They did not go to the beer. I put Slug-go on the ground. No more snails, but they are still withering and breaking at the stems. They just disappear!!! I have three pots full of them and am not having any problems with those guys. What is the problem?? What can I do to save the existing ones?I wonder if I were to put mulch around, would that help?

Answer: 1.
Sounds like stem rot. A fungicide might save them.

Overcrowding, poor air circulation, watering in cool temperatures and wet foliage are contributing factors. Don't water too often and when you do, try to keep water off the plants. Mulch will certainly help keep the foliage dry.
Answer: 2.
sow bugs (aka pill bugs, rolliepolllies) -- they're isopods and your Slug killer should get them too. Maybe the flowers are getting too much water?
Answer: 3.
Have you treated for grub worms? They eat roots fast, specially if not treated.
If you have a problem with moles, then you definitely have grubs.
What is your ph level?
Answer: 4.
I would guess too much watering or voles.Good luck..
Answer: 5.
When I put out my Impatiens, I pinch off the buds until the plant is well established. That way, the energy goes to the roots, which need to be going good before the scorching hot weather gets here.

Garden Snail Question: 3

How do I repel snails in an organic garden?

I need a cheap and easy way to get rid of them. Preferably something I could find at home or in a supermarket.

Answer: 1.
plain old black pepper repels a lot of things; stale beer in a shallow container will attract the snails and then they will drown (leave the dead snails and slugs in the container, the smell of the rotting critters will attract their brethern and you will catch even more of them; not-quite-pulverized eggshells strewn any place that you see the snail trails will pierce the snail's delicate skin.
Answer: 2.
I did this to my garden and it worked. I hope it works with you too. Just sprinkle salt on the borders.
Answer: 3.
Use beer. They love it, so they climb into the jar with the beer and die. That should tell me something about drinking, but I guess I refuse to learn.
Answer: 4.
I don't like the idea of salt on the ground as the plants may be affected adversely by it. You could put salt into water and drop the slugs into it. Another nasty method would be to drop the slugs into boiling water.
But if you just want to repel them: There was a rough metal strip ( dead expensive for its size) for sale as a slug barrier in a supermarket near me this week. You could try different rough materials to see which slugs refuse to cross.
Beer traps with lids on them were also for sale. ( lids to stop birds drinking beer!?) They don't like crushed eggshells apparently, so you could eat tons of eggs. Slugs need daytime cover, so removing all the things they can hide under to keep moist and dark during daytime would help

Garden Snail Question: 4

Can I have fish in my water garden?

I want to make a small (2-4 gal.) indoor water garden in a glass jar. If I don't have a pump or a heater, can I put a couple of fish in it? What about snails? Also what would be the best plants and/or fish to have in it?

Answer: 1.
Pond aquatic plants will not grow in the house, so you have an aquarium. One betta is good for a small space like you have. And you can root a pothos or nepthitis in the water. It will be happy inside. Don't try goldfish or any other tropical fish. They need aeration.
Answer: 2.
You can have a beta fish in that type of environment. But just one because they fight to the death.

Garden Snail Question: 5

Snails????

what is the main thing that a garden snails eats

Answer: 1.
http://www.geocities.com/sseagraves/snai...
cool site
they eat plants, leaf litter, soil sometimes, decaying stuff

in my experience
they eat the most expensive hosta first
then move on the the prettiest impatiens
finishing with begonias as they come to full bloom.
Answer: 2.
Everything! Anything juicy and succulent will do fine. They aren't too keen on junipers, spruces and the like, but anything they encounter that is juicy, yum yum. Hostas, just by their natures, low on the ground and juicy are an especially good treat.
Answer: 3.
Large, low-leaved plants - lamium, hosta, purple coneflower, etc.