How did her stem taste you rat bastard fuckers?

[argoagro]

Excuse the foul language, but this makes me want to throw in the towel. I am going to have to take more drastic measures at my "guerrilla trees", which are nearby in the same place, but for some reasons the snails over there are more of the leaf eaters. Some eat the leafs, most do, but strain dependant or what I don't know some just LOVE the stem and can kill a plant in less than 24hr's! I should know, I have lost the bulk of my seasons crop to them

I've battled them all year, from copper rings, de, Iron phosphate & even the dreaded methaldahyde pellets that I HATE. I have to figure out a better way for next year, or SOMETHING, this is THE best grow spot IN THE WORLD!! EXCEPT for ALL THE SNAILS!! It's unreal, I have more pics I will upload some time, I'm talking 100 snails in a square yard in sections nearby!!

The spot is SO GOOD though, I just have to dial this in, and the wind issues which I don't think I will have problems with next year because I won't do monsters, just a crop of auto's and then a crop of plants the size of the one just killed. BTW, the other one in the pic (Yes, it's one not two!) I ripped her, or him, out of the ground, first hermi in awhile

 

[argoagro]

I hate to ask this, but is there anything horrible that I can put in a backpack sprayer and do circles until I've covered 20' in all directions that will just absolutely devastate these things? Something that KILLS THEM ON CONTACt, not something they eat & then eat my plants & then die? I'm about ready to call the orkin man & tell him I will pay him triple rate to let me blindfold him & bring him out in the forest, rofl.

 

[StellarP]

Sorry to hear, thinking outloud... would a salt lick (ring) placed early around the stalk deter snails? Do not know how long it would last, but Mcgyver like might work.

Good Luck
StellarP

 

[Classic Seeds]

you may laugh but a few small pails or cups of beer will ruin them buggers the snails and slugs love beer but it kills them dead in a hurry it works without having to take exstreme measures and all you lose is some cheap beer they do not need any exspensive import the cheapest brand you can find if you can shade it from evaporation lids from jars are perfect for the task best of luck

 

[el Dream Reader]

Rock salt will shrivel the little bastards up on contact. Get a 50lb bag used for water softeners or a smaller bag from the grocery store used for ice cream making and pile circles around the plants. you'll have to reapply after a rain though. hope this helps.

 

[purplesupremacy]

The stems tasted good, thanks.

Spinosad, anyone?

 

[redbudduckfoot]

gallon of sand around the stem. snails seem to hate sand

 

[Lazyman]

Rock salt will shrivel the little bastards up on contact. Get a 50lb bag used for water softeners or a smaller bag from the grocery store used for ice cream making and pile circles around the plants. you'll have to reapply after a rain though. hope this helps.

Salting the earth will kill the plants.

Use pie tins of beer, the snails will drown in it. Use cheap beer! I promise this is the most effective and safest means.

Someone mentioned Spinosad, outdoor use kills honeybees, no bueno.

 

[argoagro]

you may laugh but a few small pails or cups of beer will ruin them buggers the snails and slugs love beer but it kills them dead in a hurry it works without having to take exstreme measures and all you lose is some cheap beer they do not need any exspensive import the cheapest brand you can find if you can shade it from evaporation lids from jars are perfect for the task best of luck

I'd have to make a mote around them & I'd have to stuff a keg out there & it would STILL require 2-3 trips a week which is not really possible. I think I might try to order some copper foil and wrap the entire plants with it, lol. 2 of the 3 monsters also got ruined by the wind so there is MAD nugget laying on the ground they can use as ladders, so for this year that might not help.

I think one thing I can also do is knock up a branch or two on my one best plant and try to keep some of her traits going, she is an early budder, snails don't like her that much (But they still feast!), and she is a 1.5lb'er if I get no mold or have no more wind, lol.

 

[cfo]

The beer idea does work and make sure you put the beer in a pie tin or a small container of some sort. I would dig a hole about 2 inches deep, circumference the same as the pin tin and put the pie tin in the hole. That way, the slugs/snails don't have to climb up very far to fall into the beer. I've used this method in my vegetable garden for years. You'll have slug/snails in it within 24 hrs of setting it out. Good advice from Classic Seeds, use cheap beer!

 

[purplesupremacy]

Good thing I'm not a bee farmer.

(Yes I know bees are good for pollination.)

 

[argoagro]

I'm use to reapplying stuff after rains, lol, that's when I have to pick the little bastards off & also do a stomping dance all around them to crunch up the ones nearby.

SAND! That sounds AWESOME! I need to make SAND BEDS! It's a great mulch also & there is a bunch nearby!

The rock salt & licks sound good, I would go out and buy a 50lb bag right now & make a perimiter to kill the heard nearby, but I would be afraid of losing my wind & sight cover, aka fucking up the native vegatation.

 

[argoagro]

I'm also going to bring a 12 pack out there within the next few days, and some containers to bury, I've yet to actually try the beer for feer it wouldn't last being in a guerilla setting, but at this point.....

 

[Classic Seeds]

salt will ruin the soil if tomuch is put out over time and it is a deer magnet you also could coat your stalks with a solution of deterents like that have copper in them like the old orchard mix of lime and copper{ liquid solution} something or other it works like a old white wash paint is not very rain resistant but will stay on for quit a while we had to put it on apples trees one year they call it bordalize mix or sounds something like that stop all kinds of things with a wide array of uses in orchards the copper should take care of the snails

 

[Guido Sarducci]

Salt used in quantities large enough to deter the snails will permanently ruin the soil at your
spot. Very bad idea...

Although growing in containers will negate the whole 'stealth guerrilla' objective it will increase your options for stopping the snails.

 

[argoagro]

One of the things that makes it such a good spot is there is a limitless supply of amazing soil, it's like a mile square of nothing but awesome soil & very aggressive annual weeds that provide awesome cover. I didn't think about it until now, but the nearby annual perenials & hardoow trees don't last in the area because snails eat the stems like on these plants.

Someone once gave my mother a scarf as a gift, but when it was given it came with a warning... "It's from Africa so it MUST be kept in a cedar chest or else the moths will destroy it because they love fabrics made from exotic plants"

 

[argoagro]

salt will ruin the soil if tomuch is put out over time and it is a deer magnet you also could coat your stalks with a solution of deterents like that have copper in them like the old orchard mix of lime and copper{ liquid solution} something or other it works like a old white wash paint is not very rain resistant but will stay on for quit a while we had to put it on apples trees one year they call it bordalize mix or sounds something like that stop all kinds of things with a wide array of uses in orchards the copper should take care of the snails

At this point I think I am ready to spray liquid copper over the monster that the snails flock to first and see how it does, they like the leaves but I know if left unchecked they will destroy them. I will give it a shot after my next attempt, which will be the metalhdahyde stuff applied much heavier & further away.

 

[argoagro]

Hey I just uploaded more pics, I forgot about this until I saw the pic. I'm going to make guerilla tape traps onthe stem, this is some tape I add to avoid branches snapping off and there was a bnch stuck all up in it.

Here's a random shot showing more snail carnage & a few on the ground.

 

[el Dream Reader]

Looks like my salt idea isn't so hot for guerilla plots, it works in backyard plots. how about epsom salts?

 

[purplesupremacy]

Guerrilla tape trap? Or Gorilla Tape(tm) trap ? Or guerrilla tape trap made using Gorilla Tape(tm)?