Small snails in terrarium

[Leafmite]

I hate bush snails. I think any coffee product kills them. They were doing so much damage to my non-orchids and had completely consumed some of my miniature orchids (that I have not been able to replace due to being rare) that I went nuclear...instant coffee crystals and ground coffee along with watering with brewed coffee. Overkill but they were completely gone within a day and if any more hatched, they did not survive long. It did no damage to any of the plants.

The article where I first read of coffee's effect on snails is no longer available for free (that I can find) but here is a link to another article about caffeine and snails:

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/v...icwdm_usdanwrc

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by orion141

Hi rbarata, do you just essentially use cool black coffee rather than water to water/drench the plants? 100% coffee or like a 50/50 coffee water mix?

Thanks!

I mixed 50% of it in my water. I have used it in only one or two waterings. That was enough. The snails in the photo are tiny, so more susceptible to intoxication with lower qtys of coffee.

[estación seca]

Especially with small mounted orchids, first soak them in water for about an hour so the roots are saturated. Then dunk in coffee. Reading through the archives here I found members had severe root damage after coffee treatment.

And be sure to squash every snail you see.

[rbarata]

And be sure to squash every snail you see.

As a side note, they are more active at night.

[Leafmite]

Good point. Watering the mounted orchids first is probably a good idea. The mounted orchids were in a very humid terrarium and I sprayed them every day...probably just had done so when I saw the snail damage.
After sprinkling the coffee crystals onto the medium surface of the other plants and orchids, I watered well. A little goes a long way with the instant coffee crystals.

I never had root damage from the coffee. My losses were from the damage the snails had already done. They completely consumed some of my tiny miniatures, entire plants were gone. They greatly damaged the roots of many of my non-orchids and orchids and they damaged many of the new growths on both orchids and other plants. It took a while for the plants and surviving orchids to recover. I probably won't order from that orchid vendor again.

[rbarata]

Even a lower concentration, if they don't die, will make them go away so there's no need for a lot of coffee.

[orion141]

Thank you all. I will be working on the coffee attempt over the next few days. I am hopeful this will eliminate the problem!