The first night in the garden can be doomed for carefully early seedlings. Because voracious nude snacks are happy about the fresh, delicate green. Then what can you do so that gardening does not become a frustration project? Here we reveal all important tips for snails in the flower or vegetable patch. So you can even protect your offspring from the stubborn Spanish snail.
The good news in advance: snails are important for the health of your garden. They break down organic waste and even eat rotting leaves. The molluscs process dead plants into humus. So young plants have space and nutrients to grow. Snails also offer food: you can eat hedgehogs, toads and smooth beetles relatively easily. After all, most snails only defend themselves against their enemies and flee very slowly. Also for parasites such as nematodes, threadworms of the soil, snails play an important role as hosts and thus strengthen the health of the floors.
What snails endanger the harvest?
Of the 250 to 400 types of snails that are available in Germany, only a few are harmful, including the common garden snail (Arion distinctus) and the geneted field snail (Deroceras Reticulate). Both species hatch in spring and grow to their full size in summer. Hobby gardeners are primarily annoyed by their eating of vegetable plants and flowers, but also about the transmission of fungal diseases such as mildew.
More and more strange types of snails are finding their way into our gardens through trade. This also includes the largest and no less feared nude snail: the Spanish snail (Arion Vulgaris). It becomes up to ten centimeters long and occurs in different colors. Contrary to her name, she does not come from Spain, but probably from the south of France. As a result of climate change, their distribution area continues to shift to Central and Northern Europe. In Poland, 65 animals per square meter were counted at times. Experts suspect that she also came to Germany in vegetable transports in the 1950s and has been spreading in this country since then. The immigrated species initially mixed a lot with the snail at home and finally pushed it almost completely. The black snail from the forest is also threatened by the invasive way. The adaptation of robbers and parasites that regulate the population is still missing.
To the part of the gardeners: garden plants in particular suffer from the appetite of the snails, because a Spanish snail can destroy up to 200 square centimeter lettuce per night. It increases very quickly and even eats in the heat and sun. In August the Spanish snail lays up to 400 eggs, but it only survives a small proportion of the descendants. Some hatch in autumn and some old animals also survive winter. However, this does not mean that gardeners are powerless against the snail invasion.
What helps against nude snacks in the garden?
You can already prevent snail eating with the sowing. To do this, choose snail -resistant vegetables, such as spinach, radishes, endive salad or chicorée. Strong -smelling flowers and herbs are also unpopular among slimy garden residents. These include rosemary, lavender, sage and thyme. Several years of perennials such as mashed lily, horn violets or the Armenian grape hyacinth as well as cornflowers, peony and other types of rose also survive snail attacks better than other ornamental plants.
In order to protect seeds from snails in direct sowing, they can be put a little deeper into the ground. Seticians should be planted outside as late as possible. On the one hand, they are less attractive to snails and survive their attacks on the other hand better. Even a short -mowed lawn takes hiding places to snail and thus helps the young seedlings,
Mulchen is a popular technique in permaculture, but may promote snail plagues. Because covering the floor with organic material offers the slimy pests enough moisture and hiding places. However, mulching with wood fibers, crushed mussel shells or cocoa shells can help against snails. Regular editing of the soil also means that malice snails multiply.
The correct arrangement of the garden can also keep snails away. The compost heap should be as far away from the beds as possible. It is best to place sensitive plants far from high grass and compost, in the sun and on a fine -crumbly floor. There is less hiding places for the voracious intruders. Also pour in the morning and avoid so damp beds at night. In experiments, the feeding damage could be reduced by snails by 75 percent.
These animals like to eat snails
An increased biodiversity in the garden promotes the natural balance between snails and its predators. This includes hedgehogs, toads, pointed mice and running beetles, for example. Hedges, dead wood and flower meadows are popular habitats of these natural enemies of the snails. The targeted spending of nematodes can also help against arable snails and the youngsters of larger species. These threadworms nest as parasites in snails and kill them in severe infestation. 0.5 million nematodes per square meter are recommended. A similarly great hope lies on the tiger snail, a striped snail type that does not cause any feed damage to flowers or vegetables in the garden. Rather, your meal plan includes the eggs of harmful snail species.
But even tiger snails spurn the eggs of the Spanish snail and nematodes do not help against them. In spanish snails, Indian running ducks are instead suitable as predators. The long -necked ducks destroy the slimy molluscs. But you have to keep them away from beds so that they do not use attached plants. The same applies to chickens that track down snails underground.
Fast solutions with acute snail alarm
If you discover removed plant neck and snails in the bed, it is too late for a garden redesign that can only be a long -term solution. In the short term, the most effective method is to collect the pests – especially when Spanish snails bean the garden. Moist wooden boards and converted flower pots as hiding places and lure such as chicken food can make the search easier. Then the snails have to be killed – by cutting, crushing or brewing with boiling water. Snails are cannibals and eat the dead conspecifics reliably. It is therefore advisable to take off the dead animals in one place, often you can collect further snails there the next morning.
Effective protection for seedlings are also snail claws or a snail fence. Due to the cracked shape, snails cannot overcome this barrier. It is important, however, that they reach deep enough into the ground and do not serve as a bridge over the edge. Models made of metal or biodegradable plastic reduce the risk of microplastics in beds.
Which methods should be left?
Beer traps are a popular means of snail infestation in the garden. The uninvited guests drown through the effect of alcohol. This method works, but is not recommended. Because of the strong smell, the beer also attracts the snails of the neighbors, who use their beds on the way to the trap. It is also recommended to protect flower and vegetable beads with copper ribbons or plates from snails. But this method proved to be ineffective in targeted experiments.
Desperated gardeners always use poison in the form of iron-III phosphate or metaldehyde. Metaldehyde preparations can not only kill snails in large quantities and in the case of incorrect use, but also other animals and even represent a risk to humans. They are therefore not recommended. The naturally occurring iron III phosphate is harmless to other animals such as hedgehogs and pets, however, kills all types of snails-even those that do no harm in the garden. A large biological diversity is destroyed and endangered snail types such as the snail are not spared the poison. This harms the health of the garden in the long term.
