I thought all they ate was decaying plant matter. Where did you read this????

That's what I thought...forever

Someone tell me it's not true, lol

Here is a link that might be useful: snail info

Sorry kiddo, but they do eat plants. In CA they had some fat round ones the size of large cherries. The lady said people had dumped their aquariums in that area.
They were devouring her plants.

Okay, so I should gather them up?
I never see brown snails unless they are in the pond.
I thought it was suspect when there were bunches around a plant and it was declining, but thought they had been there eating brown snails or something.

I found one the other day climbing on a little transplanted z hollyhock. I pulled it off and tossed it out in the street. The hollyhock looks better now. :)

Link below says they do eat seedlings. :0

I suppose if you needed to, you could put rings around your seedlings to keep them off? I wouldn't get rid of them, they keep the other snails (and slugs??) under control, which also eat seedlings and hostas of any size. :(

Here is a link that might be useful: decollate snail info

I've never found them in my seedling containers like I have the little round 1s. But maybe I have so many round 1s that they don't need to eat my seedlings. Seems like the round 1s multiply so much faster !! Bev

I squish all snails & grubs or put them in the bird feeders. Makes for happy birds!

Hey, I didn't think of that. The birds will be happy tomorrow, lol

wait a minute, these are the long skinny ones not the round ones.

I haven't seen many around in the past few years, I suspect that they ate the huge colony of round brown snails then went hungry.

I never say the cecollate snails eating anything but did witness the voracious brown guys dwindle away.

I guess any critter that's hungry will eat plants.

....now, if only they'll eat henbit and dollar weed!

These are all bad. There are so many now that if left uncontrolled they wind up in my pool when it rains. And _THAT_ is a disgusting mess.
So I bait regularly, and buy the stuff when I travel to California. It's lots cheaper! I wish the birds were more adept at getting them, but they're hidden during daylight hours.
I never had the problem before the rainy summer a couple of years ago when they came up from the low ground and liked my yard.

Well, I think they have eaten their supply of brown snails because there aren't any around.
I gave some to the birds and distributed them around to other beds but I am going to keep my eye on them for now on
I wish they ate chickweed and another weed I don't know the name of but it has a kazillion seeds

Okay, now the fat round ones are probably the apple snails not decollate snails. We've had the apple snails in our fish tanks before and they were good at keeping the algae cleaned off the glass, but didn't eat the plants that I noticed.

I found some decollate snails when we removed the timber edging out front a few weeks ago. They were hunkered down in the areas where there was a lot of decaying stuff, so figured they were getting fat on the decay. I didn't see any around any of my plants.

Jolana - I wish they ate the annual bluegrass like you wish they ate chickweed! Ha! Now the henbit, thistles, chickweed, bluegrass, dandelions, etc. that was growing out in the strip along our alley - I dug all that up today and the soil is naked, so no food left there for any snails. I'm going to put some low edging along there and grow some yellow cosmos and won't have to mow.

I wish that too, lol

I wish I knew what the worst weed is.
It's not a succulent but from a distance it looks like a low sedum but it has more seed than any thistle and dandelion combined.
Last year when I wasn't out there, it has taken over the back.

Maybe purslane? That's my plague, and it usually doesn't come up till after I have pulled all the chickweed.
Jim

I think the worst weed someone could have is bindweed. Its flowers are purple that look kind of like morning glories, but it will wrap around any plant and actually strangle it, hence its name. It also has a tap root and is hard to pull up. If it breaks off, more of it starts growing again. My neighbor across the alley from us always has some growing and I keep an eye out for any of its seedlings on my property so I can pull them up if I see them when they're small. It is not a native plant either. I think it is from Africa and is on the invasive species list. So, I don't think any of the snails would eat this one since they wouldn't recognize it and it grows so fast, it would probably wrap itself around one of those snails before they could get out of its way!

Where do snails go during the day?

They hide underground! I have a bunch of snails and slugs. Agh... I hate walking barefoot in my yard. I would find several slugs on my feet when I get inside...

I pour salt on those slugs & watch them melt. I think putting them in the bird feeder is a great idea, but what about the shells? I guess squashing them first would help?

I dumped out some nursery pots yesterday and found lots of snails in the bottom of the pots. Have always stepped on any snails I find in the garden, seen too many on my plants.

Peggy

We have mostly these snails:

and we have eaten them several times. They're the same ones eaten in France. In fact, the French export the super big ones to the U.S. and keep the tender medium "Helix Aspersa" for themselves. We've got them everywhere, but they only place I normally toss them out of is the veggie gardens. The kids used to have a pet crawdad that would swim to the top of the the tank, grab one of these snails and take it back to the bottom to eat.

Box turtles like them too.
A word of caution - the box turtles eat slugs and snails happily but SLOWLY, in a delicate luxurious manner most uncomfortable for the slugs and snails. Do not watch except as a diet aid - it is nasty!
The chickens at least are fast (I have caught them eating small snakes too . . . )

These ROUND snails are not decollats snails. The latter eat the former.

BTW have you heard of apple snails? I only heard about them in passing from a biologist involved in trying to stop them. Yikes! We don't have them here, but maybe you on the coast know of them

c

Here is a link that might be useful: apple snails