Snailed Again

If you are greeted one morning by huge chunks missing from your favourite plants, you can be sure of one thing: They're at it again, those pesky pests. Caterpillars, slugs and snails all do this sort of thing to plants. Here is a snail-damaged dahlia leaf (the curly line is a leaf miner, which isn't harmful).

Snails always seem to be most active at this time of year, especially in a wet summer. I normally attack them sooner, but because there are a couple of toads in the garden I have been reluctant to use pesticide. Spraying the leaves with metaldehyde usually helps, though nothing seems to deal with them to my satisfaction.

Snails are a real problem on damp ground covered by dense vegetation - the perfect place to live as far as they're concerned. They lay eggs in the soil which easily survive over winter (the eggs cannot survive for long in dry soil; this is why cultivation, to expose the eggs to the sun, in sunny weather helps keep them down).

Normally, snails just affect the wet places. But this year they are all over the garden. And they have become hard-faced, coming out in broad daylight, not just in darkness. Fortunately they only work above ground where they can be seen; they do not affect the roots.

If this wet weather continues, I could well find myself groping around the garden at night by torchlight. We'll have to see.