When a letter starts “I must strongly protest at an article written by Adam Pasco…” then I do wonder what I’ve done wrong.
Let me set the scene. You can’t find much more of a bird lover than me. Just take a look at my garden, and the way I garden, and you’ll see what I mean. Feeders provide seed and peanuts for birds all-year-round. Plants with fruits and berries are grown to provide birds with fresh pickings – especially my cherries and soft fruits, where I’m sometime lucky to get a look in! Apple windfalls are left beneath trees for blackbirds to peck at.
Hedges and thick shrubs provide shelter and nesting sites – I could show you at least four sites around my garden where sparrows, blackbirds, robin and wren (I think) nested last year. Water is provided in a bird bath and large terracotta saucers on the patio, and I don’t use any pesticides around my garden at all.
But to be organic you do still need to control pests to prevent damage to both edible crops and ornamental plants. So when, in the last issue of Gardeners’ World magazine, I advised readers to collect and dispose of snails found in compost bins, I didn’t imagine this would upset anybody.
But apparently by recommending the disposal of snails I am personally responsible for the demise of the song thrush throughout the British Isles!
The thrush is my favourite garden bird, but surely to be politically correct I’m not now expected to collect snails from inside my compost bin and distribute them around the garden in the hope of attracting a song thrush to feed.
My garden, like many others, provides ideal breeding conditions for snails, but this isn’t actually the main reason I garden. So if I do come across snails I do dispose of them, although I hasten to add that I never use pellets for this job.
Just for the record, I regularly spot beautiful thrushes in my garden, and the remnants of snail shells indicating that they’ve been feeding, so clearly there are still snails around.
The thrush is my favourite garden bird, but surely I can’t be expected to collect and distribute snails around the garden in the hope of attracting a song thrush to feed? Am I really in the wrong for disposing of snails I discover?
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I beleive your in the right adam ,i regulary dispose of snails from my garden i move them to the end of the entry at the back of my back garden i spend probaly 30 minutes every fornight checking my garden and removing the pest rather then killing them then then simply place them on the rockpile 20 metres down the entry at the base of a large lorrel bush i must say the birds have a feild day ive often seen a robin blackbird thrush dining on them as soon as im far enough away like a buffet prepared for them ,i like to think im helping them
I am sure people have been disposing of snails, just like you, and me, for decades. I too have the lovely thrush visiting my garden regularly,has been for years. I am sure they will continue to do so, even tho snails will continue to be dispatched to snail heaven by me.We will never find every one that is lurking in dark corners, so our thrushes will still have their favorite snack.
I “dispose” of anything living in any garden I am working in by finding it a more suitable home, if it is liable to eat my produce or spoil my flowers. It is easy to grow plants for the slugs and snails which they prefer and then collect them and put them under a hedge, where they will be happy till a predator lower down the foodchain, like a bird, can find them. There is no need to be cruel to be a successful gardener. I love it when a tame robin or blackbird joins me while I am gardening to pick up worms – luckily all the gardens I work in have very fertile soil.
I agree with you! We are all god’s creatures and should look after each other.
snails are slime and Disgusting
Maybe you could set aside a small patch where you can ‘farm’ snails for the thrushes, growing plants they love. You could perhaps fence it with a very fine gauge mesh to keep them in! A bit like leaving a patch of nettles for butterflies.
I have heard that snails return whence they came,and can detect the slime of others.So if you get rid of them they are just replaced by others who take up the territory.I throw mine into the middle of the lawn and hope the thrushes get them before they get back.Now what about those tiny black slugs?
I let the chickens have mine so I don’t feel so guilty as they turn that extra helping of protein into fresh eggs.
I too will move snails away from plants that i work hard to grow, i dont see anything wrong with that, if you had a dog or cat damaging your plants wouldn’t you try to deter them too?? i have many song thrushes and mistle thrushes in my garden, if they couldn’t find anything nice to eat i doubt they’d keep returning?? i’ve never heard of growing a patch of nettles to attract butterflies, but i have heard of growing them to attract ladybirds, who play a big role in an organic garden!
If you have a problem with snails, why don’t you just cook and eat them? They are not native to this country after all but were brought in by the Romans as a delicacy. Free protein.
oh my goodness that is disgusting! I chuck mine on the garage roof for the birds to eat! The birds love that
I throw my snails into the air, aiming to have them fall on the concrete drive where their shells will break and hopefully one of the many birds from the surrounding woods will find them and eat them
Ms Lupin – lovely name by the way – the butterflies, especially peacocks lay their eggs on nettles as they are the preferred food for their caterpillars. Small tortoiseshell, painted lady comma and red admiral will do the same, but of course there are other less invasive plants that do the same -try honesty for the orange tip and buckthorn for the brimstone yellow. holly and ivy bring in the holly blue. I have all these regularly in my garden and they are so beautiful when they amass on my buddleia bushes.
Hello please do not throw garden snails in to the air hoping they are going to break there shells thats animal cruelty gods creatures should be encouraged to your garden not killed.how u like be thrown in the air huh?
last year I tried everything to protect my plants ie beer traps, gravel, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, grapefruit hide aways, out with a torch at night and all to no avail. I lost all my courgettes, beens, chard and many flowering plants. the hedgehogs and thrushes cant keep them down so what am I to do. ps I have a squirrel digging up my alliums as i write! I love wildlife but am feeling very dicouraged.
I tried throwing my snails onto the middle of the lawn to encourage Thrushes etc, but no, all the birds ignore them and I just watched the snails happily find their way back to my delicious plants. The slugs I deal with by slug traps with beer, also I have a bucket of salt water which I put the slugs and snails into to meet their demise. Garden plants and vegetables take time, energy and money to grow, so I can’t really sympathise with them when they chomp through my garden. There just seem to be so many of them even though we’ve had such a hard winter
you are not alone.Certainly it is heartening to find concern for the welfare of our native song birds and more so as a result of the most enduring winter for nigh on fifty years.My fellow gardeners for a time were displeased with my removal and disposal of slugs and snais from the environs of my garden which comprises lawn, shrubberies, veg. sectioned areas. In my attempt to keep harmony i came up with a thought that i should and could solve the dilemma by acquiring two productive khaki campbell ducks which feast on every and any moving ground dwelling insect especially in early mornings and late evenings. This is ok for me in the countryside with space and housing and security against foxes and dogs for the ducks. I dont use chemical sprays or pellets, my flowers and beds are not torn or scratched up by the ducks. The manure they provide is so nourishing to the garden i now feel i`ve killed a few birds with the one stone,pardon the pun.I have two fresh eggs each morning, my lawn lush and green,flowers and veg. thriving and i sing out loud great praise for two charming khaki campbell ducks
before Christmas my Holly tree was full of berries,but by Christmas day they had compleatly gone pidgeons and the lovely Thrush were the culprits, never find them tucking into a nice tasty snail or a really slimey slug, and my garden is full of the little blighters.so come on creatures they are waiting for you to polish them off.
i have a question
im a new garner im trying to plant yellow corn but i dont know how many kernals are needed per plant when i start
m a new garner im trying to plant yellow corn but i dont know how many kernals are needed per plant when i start???
please reply to my mail
m a new garner im trying to plant yellow corn but i dont know how many kernals are needed per plant when i start???
please reply to my mail
pierce62@piercetraders.com
Ok his will sound crazy – I remember reading about a study that was done probably 10 years ago by some Uni’ students. Looking into the behavior of Garden snails. Each shell was marked & they were taken to locations at various distances form the collection point – maybe 1/4, 1/2, 1 & 1 & 1/2 miles away & amazingly, many of these snails returned to where they were originally collected. Does anyone else recall this article?
I didn’t read that study but I have a British Wildlfe book which talks of ‘homing’ behaviour of snails marked with tippex who came back from about a mile and a half away – perhaps it was referring to the same study. Recently R4 covered the same subject but i missed it darn it. I take mine to Dartmoor, about 5 miles away, but I wish there was an easier, snail friendly solution. Not keen on sacrificing them to the birds. If I were a snail, I would object. When their heads are out, they look almost sentient and intelligent. Not that that should make any difference really, if they are suffering they are suffering, high IQ or not. I would love to hear from someone who has an answer to this problem. They eat the best bits of my garden. Are there any plants that repel snails, or make them eat less?! Or sterilise them?
How do I get rid of my Holly bush which appears to be taking over a major part of my garden. A new gardener so help is needed thanks