Bush snails: updates on caffeine, hydrogen peroxide?

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Hey all,

I caught a bush snail in the roots of an Onc I recently bought online. That same order arrived with a cattleya with sunken root tips which now I suspects bush snails might've been snacking on.

I see a lot of recommendations on the forum to use diluted coffee: half coffee/half water, with a little rubbing alcohol.

I wonder if over the years folks have any updates on this or other techniques to eradicate bush snails. Do you stick to spraying the roots or do you drench the medium?

Also, other online forums swear by using hydrogen peroxide against bush snails. The consensus on this one seems to be that hydrogen peroxide's damage to roots is not worth it.

Any recent updates, how are you successfully dealing with bush snails?

[nhbeek]

Hydrogen peroxide, even when diluted kills all of the root tips on your plants. I have observed bad leaf drop after using peroxide as well.

Some people here like using coffee, I have never tried it.

I do know from my own experimentation that malathion drench kills the snails with minimal damage to the plants.

Whatever method you choose, you will need to use multiple applications to get a complete elimination.

[Leafmite]

Hi!
Yes, coffee works quite well on bush snails. I have used it twice to eradicate them (the first, they were all over and in the soil of the non-orchids, too, and doing a great deal of damage, the second, they destroyed all the miniature orchids in my terrarium). If you are not a coffee drinker or cannot resist drinking your coffee, you can buy instant coffee and use that. Be certain to treat all the plants at the same time, even if you do not see a bush snail on them.

A note of caution...I have not found coffee effective on aquatic snails, unfortunately. I did find something effective for that, though, thankfully (No-Planaria). Not sure, too, how effective it is on slugs and other snails.


The original article of the discovery of how caffeine affected the bush snails in Hawaii while trying to use caffeine to get rid of frogs, I think, is now behind a paywall but here is another article:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/v...icwdm_usdanwrc

[Relemitty]

Not really pertinent to this question but reminded me of something.

I used to be into organic gardening.
To get rid of slugs and snails use beer.
Get a can of the cheapest slinkiest beer and a empty tuna or cat food can, sink the can up to the rim in the dirt and at sunset fill it to right below the rim with beer.
Check in the morning and there were almost always slugs and snails dead in the beer.
They are attracted by the smell and start drinking and fall in. hehe.

[Leafmite]

That method does work well on slugs and other types of land snails. Bush snails, though, ignore it and any other types of baits which is what makes them so frustrating.

[DeaC]

Sev. yrs ago I found bush snails amongst some Masdevallias. Ray mentionned the coffee solution, which I tried-cooled- full strength poured into media. All it took was 1 application and they bit the dust.

[estación seca]

Do a search here on coffee. There are detailed explanations. Some people have found coffee to damage root tips, so you need to water before and after.

[PuiPuiMolcar]

This thread shows up right when I've found several bushsnail in my rossioglossum grande. This is what happen when you leave your orchid alone during vacation. Ill try it, and report the result on my grande