My lovely deep red chrysanthemums before the snails found them.Click for a larger view.
Yesterday, another plant looked to be heading towards the same fate. I'd bought some extra copper wire to put round my pots, as they're not supposed to tolerate walking over it.
I'd seen the likely culprit hiding behind a nearby pot earlier and had touched his foot with the copper and he really hadn't liked it, so I was hoping it might be a kinder way to protect my plants.
So I made a ring round the half eaten plant's pot and another around the plant itself and went out at dusk last night to see if it had done any good.
Not only was the blasted snail actually balancing on the copper ring to get a good position to munch away my plant, but the bugger was giving his mate a piggy back for a good chomping position too.
Click the photo for a larger view.I've never seen team work like this before. I'm glad I got something to show you as it was going dark and the shutter speed is so slow that they're not as sharp as they could be. Cheeky blighters!
Click the photo for a larger view. You can actually see the cheeky beggar balancing on the copper wire at the bottom.
4 comments:
honestly!! you can almost hear the two of them mumbling "hah - we'll show her..."!! little blighters!
oh dear - that's not funny *snigger*
I spent a while on gardener's world forum last year, trying to find an answer to a similar problem. I signed up under a false name of course, didn't want anyone to know how sad I am. Someone suggested chucking snails over the fence, but apparently they can find their way home for MILES. take them on holiday, maybe?
Funny you should say that nifty - I found that out for myself, they certaily can. I was gathering them and chucking them out on grass the other side of the 6' high stone wall that surrounds my entire garden. When I started recognising shells, I marked a few with a Sharpie and I found the same ones in the same spot the following day. The next night I went out later, after I'd thrown them on the grass again - and there was a row of them making their way down the inside of the wall. To get back to their original plants, they had to scale a stone wall, go about 20 feet over fine gravel, 6 feet over concrete and up the logs a lot of my plants are on. Determined buggers they are.
I gather mine up in a bucket, put them in the car and take them for a nice long drive into the country. Let them try and make their way back home from there! :)
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