Are Snails Damaging Your Garden?

You’ve spent hours on your yard so that you can achieve a garden that you can truly be proud of. But all the time, money and effort you have invested toward the care and maintenance of your garden can be rendered useless when snails invade your property.

Think of your landscape as an eco-system. In an ideal scenario, all the plants and creatures are living in harmony, creating a balance which results in a thriving garden. But that delicate balance can be thrown off by the invasion of some species of animals. One of the most notorious of these are snails.

Why should you be wary of these creatures?

They may not seem threatening due to their small size, but these can wreak serious havoc on your garden in as little as 24 hours. These creatures have a voracious appetite and there have been several instances wherein they have decimated entire gardens in a short amount of time.

Snails typically get into a garden by hitching with seedlings that you plant on your property. These devour the seedlings even before they sprout.

The population of snails in your garden can explode exponentially if you fail to detect these and take the appropriate measures. Snails are hermaphrodites, which means they do not need snails of the other gender in order to reproduce. These creatures have both male and female organs and reproduce three to four times in a year, laying dozens of eggs each time. Once the eggs hatch, it will only take as little as three weeks before these new snails can begin causing damage to your garden.

Snail Prevention

One of the first things that you need to do is to frequently check for the presence of these pests. These pests love wet and shady areas. It is also a good idea to remove weeds from your garden beds and to pull up weeds from the ground as these can serve as homes for snails.

If you see signs of these creatures, you will need to cultivate the soil around the affected plants. Snails usually burrow beneath the soil and cultivating the soil exposes these pests.

Finally, check the landscaping features on your property as pests can hide beneath these.

How do you eliminate these pests from your garden?

Early in the morning, inspect the leaves of your plants and look for egg sacs and destroy these. To kill these creatures, find a bowl and fill it halfway with beer. Then, place the bowl where you suspect these small pests live. The snails are attracted to the scent of beer and will drown in the bowl.

If you are struggling with a pest problem in Modesto, contact the professionals at AAI Pest Control today!