Snails

You may have enjoyed the snails in garlic butter at that nice French restaurant but that does not mean that you need to tolerate snails in your home or out in your garden destroying the plants! The slippery, slow-moving slugs that infest your home and garden can do a lot of damage and be hard to remove. Call Cal Termite and Pest Control for help with snails in the Ventura area.

Snails 101

Snails live in the ocean and on the land all over the world. A slug is a snail with a minimal shell or no shell at all. These snails are more maneuverable and can get into cracks and crevasses that regular snails cannot enter. Snails have a long ribbon-like tongue with thousands of microscopic structures similar to teeth. This is called the radula and it is used to rasp algae from surfaces and rip food into tiny bits.

Snails perform a useful biological and environmental function when they use their radula to shred and eat dead foliage. Unfortunately, snails do not consult with farmers and gardeners before going out to eat. Snails in large numbers can reduce agricultural crops or your garden vegetable to mush in no time flat.

Snails in California

Brown Garden Snail

The brown garden snail, AKA cornu asperum, is the most common of its species in California. This guy has a brown shell and a gray to yellow body. Their trail of slime will show you where they were and where they are headed. This snail was introduced intentionally to Southern California around the middle of the nineteenth century.

Decollate Snail

Rumina decollate is the decollate snail. Its shell is a pointed spiral. This snail was also introduced to fight the brown garden snail which was threatening citrus crops. It did attack the brown garden snail but it also went after citrus crops and various endangered animals as well.

Dealing with Snails

Snails are so slow moving that one might think it would be easy to eradicate them from a farmer’s field or from your garden, yard, and home. Unfortunately, that is not the case. A major problem is that metaldehyde baits work great for killing slugs. And, metaldehyde is also effective in killing your pets.

Thus, we never use metaldehyde granules to treat snails. A better choice is to use baits made with iron phosphate. This approach is as successful as metaldehyde in the elimination of snails and your pets are not bothered. Because iron phosphate can stain concrete we will adjust where and how we apply the granules in order to successfully get rid of your snail problem, leave your pets unharmed, and not leave an iron stain on your patio. We have been doing this kind of work for years and are happy to adjust our methods to achieve the best results with minimal side effects. For help with snails or any unwanted pests in the Ventura area, talk to us at Cal Terminate and Pest Control.