These slimy pests are particularly active after rain
Snails collect on the underside of a wooden board that had been placed in a vegetable garden. This homemade trap should be checked daily. Courtesy UC IPM, photo by Jack Kelly Clark
They’re the slime of garden pests. Under the cover of darkness, they munch away on young lettuce, cabbage and other cool-season vegetables, destroying young transplants and frustrating gardeners to no end. And with recent rain, these land-loving mollusks have become particularly active – and voracious.
“Snails and slugs rank among our most despised garden pests,” say the UC Cooperative Extension master gardeners. Not only do they attack foliage, but also flowers and fruit.
Although their silvery slime trails are a telltale sign of their activity, those tracks don’t necessarily lead to these little culprits. They can hide under other plants or beneath pots or buried among fallen leaves.
According to the master gardeners, the only way to effectively control snails and slugs is vigilance – plus some home-made traps.
“Management requires a vigilant and integrated approach that includes eliminating moisture and hiding spots, trapping, barriers and hand-picking,” say the master gardeners. “Baits can be helpful, but by themselves don’t provide adequate control in gardens that contain plenty of shelter, food and moisture.”
The master gardeners suggest visiting your garden at night with a flashlight to catch the snails and slugs in the act, then picking them off by hand for disposal. Look around the edges of raised beds and under neighboring shrubs or perennials; that’s where they like to hide before their nocturnal foraging.
Creating a “hiding place” is among the best ways to trap these slippery pests. Take a board (12 by 15 inches is ideal, say the master gardener) and place it in the garden, atop 1- by 1-inch runners with some gaps around the edges. (You can use wooden stakes laid flat on the ground for this purpose.) That inch of space invites snails and slugs to crawl under the board and congregate.
In the morning, check under the board – and dispose of those snails and slugs. To be truly effective, the board needs to be checked regularly, preferably daily.
Watering in the morning instead of later in the day or evening can help reduce the excess moisture these animals need to move around. So does drip irrigation.
Location also goes a long way in cutting down on snail or slug damage. “Place your garden in the sunniest spot possible,” advise the master gardeners. “Remove garden objects, adjacent plants or ground cover that can serve as shady shelter.”
A 4-inch-wide strip of copper sheeting also can be a good barrier to snails and slugs; they can’t crawl over copper. Bury the strip 1 inch deep or attach it to the top edge of a raised bed, and slightly bend the top edge away from the plants you want to protect. But the copper barrier only works if the patch you’re protecting is already snail- and slug-free.
Avoid metaldehyde baits; they’re especially poisonous to dogs and birds. In addition, they quickly lose their effectiveness due to sunlight and moisture from rain or irrigation.
Iron phosphate baits are safe for use around pets, people and wildlife. They can come in handy around sprinklers or other moist areas where slugs and snails tend to hang out. Irrigate BEFORE scattering iron phosphate bait. Apply it in the evening after a warm day; that’s when snails and slugs are most active.
Another solution: Plant what snails and slugs won’t eat. “Consider snail-proof plants such as impatiens, geraniums, begonias, lantana, nasturtiums and many plants with stiff leaves and highly scented foliage like sage, rosemary and lavender,” say the master gardeners.
For more on managing snails and slugs: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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