bad snail infestation

[OrchidNut555]

Hi people

For weeks now I've been encountering snails in my orchids, I do believe they are bush snails. I have around 40 plants and yesterday after finding yet another snail I had had enough. absolutely enough.

I heard the coffee method works well, so I spent 3.5 hours soaking my entire collection (took so long BC of space issues). today I read some people have had plants die BC of it. I also see some say it repels the snails but doesn't kill them. I also read hydrogen peroxide kills them, some say it doesn't. but peroxide is also shown to harm orchid roots. I'm in Europe and I don't have access to sevin.

I have recently repotted all of my plants as they needed it, most of which are cattleyas that won't handle another repot now.

I'm at a total loss. I feel extremely defeated. does anyone have any words of advice? I feel like my entire collection may be doomed and I'm at my wits end here. sorry if I sound whiney but this has been so energy draining as plants are one of the very few things that make me happy

[Burgos]

Keep killing them by hand, if you have the time and patience to do it. I tried the coffee method and not only didn't it work for me, but it also proved harmful for the roots of some orchids (sarcochilus, cattleya...). Maybe the quantity was too much, but I followed the advice provided in a thread here.

I have also tried smashing the blue granules of snail bait (I used gloves and face mask) so that they can eat the small pieces and it worked partly. I found some dead ones, but some keep reappearing. Nonetheless, they don't seem to cause much damage to the orchids. One cattleya purpurata was really suffering, but then I found it really was a big regular snail that was constantly munching on the new root tips, making them totally useless.

[OrchidNut555]

strange. people who used it reported good results. did you use enough caffeine?

did you water the plants before and after? that should eliminate root damage as I've heard.

I've seen bush snails cause massive damages: eating pseudobulbs and various places of roots munched onw including root tips. my new cattleya green genius has 3 little roots that are about an inch long before they stop and it seems very much like snail damage too. thi one dud come with snails too

[rbarata]

1 expresso/l water

[OrchidNut555]

thanks for the dosage, but could you add context?
has it worked for you? how long did you do it? how many times did you do it? have you tried anything else? the dosage is always good to know and to apply but my questions lies in more logistics than just the dosage if you wouldn't mind sharing your experiences?

[rbarata]

The effectiveness depends on the snail size. If we're talking about those really small ones (my experience), two or three waterings with coffee are enough to kull them.
If we're talkung big snails, I think this dosage won't kill them but, for sure, will make them look for other places to live.
Some people put coffee grounds on top of the medium to prevent them from comming back

[estación seca]

I've never noticed a widespread problem and it worked for me. No treatment is 100% effective. With a large number of plants and lots of snails there may be some survivors. Wait a week or two and repeat the treatment. Don't give up; be persistent.

I make sure the plants are very wet before treating to prevent damage from the caffeine, and I water thoroughly an hour later to rinse it out. I brew the coffee by putting grounds into a pot of boiling water (café de olla.) You could try the proportions rbarata mentioned. Coffee ground for drip or pot brewing is cheaper in the US than coffee ground for espresso.

[Leafmite]

I have not had adverse affects to the coffee with any of my plants (I did flush the Carnivorous plants well with distilled water after a few minutes). Bush snails do eat roots, even burrowing into soil of tropical plants to do so (I use loose soil mixes). Plants suffer greatly from an infestation of these.

Coffee only seems to work on bush snails, in my experience.

I usually water everything with strong coffee (room temperature--made with instant coffee granulars) and sprinkle instant coffee crystals on the surface of the medium of my orchid pots and other tropical plants and around the mounted orchids to make certain that they are gone. One treatment of coffee has done it both times that I used this method.

If the coffee, for any reason, does not work, powdered carbaryl (Sevin) has also worked for me. Read the safety recommendations if you use this. This was how I got rid of them the first time, before I knew that coffee would work.

[Burgos]

Originally Posted by OrchidNut555

strange. people who used it reported good results. did you use enough caffeine?

did you water the plants before and after? that should eliminate root damage as I've heard.

I've seen bush snails cause massive damages: eating pseudobulbs and various places of roots munched onw including root tips. my new cattleya green genius has 3 little roots that are about an inch long before they stop and it seems very much like snail damage too. thi one dud come with snails too

To be honest, I didn't soak them before. I only watered from above and then immersed them. After some half an hour, I did run water through the pots to remove the excess coffee. I see very few snails now. They don't seem to like the cold. We'll see when spring arrives.

[thefish1337]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I've never noticed a widespread problem and it worked for me. No treatment is 100% effective. With a large number of plants and lots of snails there may be some survivors. Wait a week or two and repeat the treatment. Don't give up; be persistent.

I make sure the plants are very wet before treating to prevent damage from the caffeine, and I water thoroughly an hour later to rinse it out. I brew the coffee by putting grounds into a pot of boiling water (café de olla.) You could try the proportions rbarata mentioned. Coffee ground for drip or pot brewing is cheaper in the US than coffee ground for espresso.

I followed this method with good results when I read your post in another thread. I combined the coffee with a wetting agent and got really good control. Only found one after two months.