They Can Hide But I Will Find Them!

  The pretty snail from yesterday's story needs to live in the garden plot and procreate until there are nothing but pretty pink snails.  The Rosy Wolfsnail and its predatory habits would be a welcome change to what dominates there.  I have finally identified the leaf-chewing, melon-pitting, tomato-ruining culprits!  When researching the Rosy, I found that one of the mainstays of their diets is my nemesis snail, the Southern Flatcoil Snail.  What a name but how fitting.  These snails do, indeed, resemble a flat coil of rope...very tiny rope...but rope, just the same. 

  
  While a few of these rascals could be found around the place, I have never seen the thousands that I have recently.  A few years back, I had the bright idea of building raised garden beds.  I figured since I am not getting any younger, it would be nice to have the higher beds.  There was also the idea that lifting the boxes above the ground would be a deterrent to the voles that were tunneling everywhere on the hill.  We were the recipients of the voles in a load of mulch.  They liked the place and were soon taking over the entire hill.  Thankfully, a few dozen rat snakes moved in to solve that problem but the raised beds, themselves, were the start of another.  When building the beds, we bought a load of compost to use as soil.  Never again!  That was yet another mistake on our part.  What started out as a good move turned into a nightmare.  That compost came with snail eggs.  It was not long before each raised bed was housing approximately a thousand snails.  Those snails were eating everything!  Since the snails are nocturnal, it took a while before I figured out who the culprits were.  During the daytime hours, those sneaky, little critters would hide in the cracks of the boxes or up under that same vole infested mulch.  I tried all of the home methods, some of the recommended bought methods and finally turned to a bit of mean ingenuity to eradicate the snails.  As bad as it sounds, I sort of boiled the critters.  Hot water was the only way to get rid of the infestation that was rapidly now moving onto other things.  I was finding the snails in the house!  Nope...not going there!  The raised beds were literally filled with hot water.  The water would not cause problems with future plantings nor would it harm any critter that came to dine upon the now cooked "escargot".  As for the critters that had moved into the laundry room?  Well, I found that that trusty broom swept most of the snails up quite well but using a little elbow grease with a mop and some lavender scented "Mr. Clean" did a grand job of not only deterring the little snails but also killed any bugs that were hiding under the appliances!  Mr. Clean is good stuff, folks!  Cleans and kills insects!

  Now the garden plot is basically cleared of the Southern Flatcoil Snails and I am happy to say that the Little Bayou House is safe and sound from the critters!  No more mulch...no more bought compost!  I think I will stick to what is here and not bring in any more critters! Those Rosy Wolfsnails better get on the ball.  They seem to be slacking on the job!  Thank goodness, Mr. Clean is not lazy!