Large increase in the number of snails.

 I have lived in the same house in Leeds for the last 33 years. During the
first 27 (approximately) of these years, I hardly ever saw a snail, although
I did have a large number of slugs. During the last 6 (approx) years, there
has been a dramatic increase in the number of snails. On a wet evening after
dark, if I go to post a letter in the local mail box, my feet inadvertently
crunch a snail every tenth step, on average. I have just removed and killed
about 50 of them from my bed of petunias, the bed being a mere 5 square
metres in area. The snails are thick on the ground.

Is this problem local to Leeds, or has there been the same problem
throughout the UK?  What has caused the sudden increase in their population?

I do not accept "global warming" as an answer -- far too easy, facile, and
probably wrong. With global warming, Leeds nowadays has the same climate as
Berkshire did 35 years ago when I lived there. Berkshire in 1972 did not
have the plague of snails I am experiencing here in Leeds in 2007.

Richard Chambers        Leeds   UK.

 Hi Richard

                 I have experienced exactly the same thing I live in South
Leeds. I put down pellets and that contains them for a while then BANG they
are back. A mauve flowered plant also seems to have invaded over the same
amount of time too but that is not such a big problem as last year it
attracted a Humming Bird Hawk moth.



Steve

 Global warming or not, snails increase with warm damp weather as more
small snail survive.

In Sussex we have had (in my garden at least) a huge increase.

Slug pellet the gits.

We spent £80 on new plants the other weekend. Everyone reduced to
stubs overnighjt.

 

A light sprinkling of salt around vulnerable plants and a handy bucket of
salty water to drop 'em in works for my gastropods.

--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."