Snail Problem

Mystery Culprit

     

      Hi, this is my first blog, I hope you find it useful, or at least interesting:

      A Clematis growing next to our front door was getting progressively weaker. There were a few holes in the leaves but this didn't seem to be the real problem and I thought that, in spite of going through a summer of record rainfall, the roof overhang was sheltering the plant and  causing dryness at the roots. So I watered it. This produced no change, so I tried slug control, with an equally dazzling lack of success. It was only by chance that I noticed, on returning home after dark one night, that the wall behind the plant had developed a pebble-dash effect. A closer look revealed the source of my problem: snails - about a quarter of the world population. They had bypassed my slug control by climbing around the wall from a bed at the front of the house and tended to be feeding on the outer parts of stems rather than leaves, preventing the movement of water, sugar and nutrients around the plant.

      This was a graphic example of why measures to control slugs often don't work with snails, because pellets, or the natural control using eelworms (Nemaslug), are used on the ground, while the snails are absailing onto the plants from somewhere else, laughing at the gardener's ignorance.

      Needless to say, this lot didn't laugh, although one did go WHEEEE! as it sailed across the road.