Snails...3 varieties I.D. please

[Junebug]

O.K., right about now I'm thinking of making a batch of snail stew. There are 3 types of snails munching on the roots of my chids. There are tiny blackish coiled ones, tiny to teenie tiny ones with cone shaped shells, and a larger puffy coiled variety. The cone shaped variety have been causing the most grief. They're hard to spot because they're so small and they blend right in with the roots.

I'm not looking for a cure all. I've tried beer and they wouldn't drink it, and snail baits that they wouldn't touch. My best line of defense seems to be the "catch and kill" approach using sliced potatoes as bait. I'm also giving them doses of coffee. I smashed close to 300 of them over the last 3 days. Last night I treated my most infested plants with coffee and potatoes. The coffee treatment must have really helped because this morning there were no snails munching the potatoes of the plants treated with coffee.

Anyway, here are photos of what I'm dealing with. Can anyone identify them?

[ronaldhanko]

I have fits if I find one snail and you have three different kinds? I don't know what they are, but would like to know what the coffee treatment is.

[glengary54]

The small round ones in the first picture are bush snails - Zonitoides arboreus - the larger round one in the second picture is the brown garden snail - Helix aspersa. I have no earthly idea what the conical ones are, I have only seen that type of shell at the beach. Good luck!!

[Paul]

Whether this will be of any help, June, I don't know. If your conicals are one of these, then that might not be a bad thing......

snail eating snails

[glengary54]

Paul I think you hit the jackpot. Well done!!!!

[Paul]

Originally Posted by ronaldhanko

but would like to know what the coffee treatment is.

Don't know if the "coffee treatment" June was referring to is different than the one I know, Ron, but I have heard of spreading used coffee grounds around hostas and other plants to deter snails.

[glengary54]

The coffee treatment I have heard of over the years for snails is equal parts strong coffee and water, used as both a spray and as a drench. It is proposed that caffeine is toxic to bush snails in particular.

[Junebug]

Thanks everyone.

The little conicals are the snails doing the most damage. They chomp the tips right off the roots and leave scars along the length of the roots. They're tiny, but large in numbers and they blend right in the with the roots...especially dendrobium roots. The do look more like something you'd find at the beach or in a fish tank. The youngsters aren't much bigger than a grain of sand...even hard to spot on the potatoes with the naked eye.

The garden type are fewest in numbers and much, much easier to spot. Interestingly enough, they cause the least damage. I never see their babies, just the adults.

I think the bush snails came as a bonus with my Stan. which was delivered from a vendor in PR 2 years ago. It's the first plant I ever spotted them on. They're almost invisible on bark and their babies are very tiny too. They're attracted to roots and buds but they don't damage the foliage.

I repotted most everything this year. All the plant roots were cleaned up well, but it's hard to find the stragglers among healthy roots. Within weeks of repotting the little stinkers show back up again.

There are tons of anoles living in the shadehouse and after reading up I discovered that they do eat snails, so I guess they're at least helping to keep the snail population in check.

I've tried coffee soaks using leftover coffee, but there never is enough coffee to effectively treat all the chids. The other day I lightly sprinkled used grounds on top of the potting media of a few select plants...most infested with snails. I didn't want to go overboard because I was worried about messing up the PH levels. My thought was that each plant I treated should get a little jolt of caffeine each time I water. Afterwards I placed sliced potatoes over the media of all the potted plants. The next morning there were no snails on the potatoes of the coffee treated plants. I'm saving and drying my spent grounds and I'm planning to sprinkle a little over all the potted chids. The vandaceous and mounted chids will receive coffee soaks, because the grounds wash off of them.