I am surprised that most of you writing this have snails not eat your salvias. I have two salvias (red flowering kinds) and snails attack them on a daily basis; worse when it is raining daily. I have to pick 4-5 snails from the base of the plant where there is mulch every day or they will climb up the plant and make holes on the leaves. I also pinched the laves from the base of the plants so that it is not dark and protected for the snails to siesta during the day but every time it rains, the snails find their way there. The salvias are flowering nicely but I am sick of snails. I read that snails leave slimy trail behind them as they come to find an edible crop so the next one finds its way by following the trail even if you pick the snails and throw them on to the road (or whatever special way you have of killing them, my favorite is line them in bunch and stomping on them). The good thing is, I only have two of these plants so I can easily get rid of them and replace them with something else. I used snail baits for a while but these things are expensive, though they do work (for a while). I also have read and also believe that poison run off from the snail baits kill earthworms (who wants that?). It also killed the whole nest of birds that were nesting on a loropetalum tree in our garden once, and that was that! I had a lump in my throat for days because I think the mother bird picked some snail baits and took it to the nest to feed the chicks. All three chicks were dead the next day (I found them under the tree, they might have twitched and fell as the poison made them suffer). Back to snails, they dont seem to bother a blue flowering variety of salvia that I also have, this one has sort of hairy leaves. --- Plants I have in my garden that snails DONÂT bother: -Camellia -Azalea -Roses of Sharon (including Jean dÂArc Althea) (they do love to eat the fallen spent flowers but not the plant) -Hibiscus (again, they will eat the fallen spent flowers on the ground) -Gardenia -Jasmine -Rangoon creeper -China doll (planted in the garden) (they ate some leaves touching the ground but gave up) (I think it didnÂt taste delicious the way they have expected) -Japanese magnolia -Poisettia (also planted in the garden) (they might hide under it due to bushy nature of these plants when planted in the garden) (I have found sporadic snails during rainy days under my poinsettias but they never ate the leaves) -Heavenly bamboos (both tall & dwarf varieties) -Duranta erecta (Cuban gold, honey dew drops, & alba I grew them all, although Cuban Golds were killed last winter which was a record breaking freeze) -Ixora -Boxwood -Palm (sago) -Aloe -Impatiens -Ginger (edible) -Butterfly Ginger (flowering type, not the one you eat) -Gladioluses (every now and then a snail will climb on them but donÂt know what they are doing) -Dahlias (though I was warned snails like to eat these but they never bother except for a few holes at the base of the plants) -Mexican heathers -Red Yucca (I did find a slug at the base of the plant but it was just living in the mulch without ever eating the plant) -Spider lilies (they will taste a few leaves to see if they like it, but mainly they will leave these climbers alone) -Sedum (although snails avoid them, birds love them!) (Also snails may taste a few leaves before leaving them alone) -Bleeding hearts (white flowers, red center) -DevilÂs ivy -Mother-in-lawÂs tongues (no pest bothers these poisonous things in my garden, also in outdoors containers) -Weeping fig (Benjamina) -Golden euonymus (I have the dwarf kinds) -Oleanders (the good news is, they donÂt eat the small plants either) -Plumeria -Jade plants -Snake plant -Texas sage -Taro -Calla lilies -Creeping Juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) -Yellow mini-roses -Silvery Sunproof Lily Turf -Hydrangea (snails were present around these but never really bothered them) -Peonies (small one without true leaves are germinated but still havenÂt attacked by snails so I am assuming it is safe to say they wonÂt bother) -Mint -Basil -Thyme -Cilantro --- What snails WILL eat (experience gained from my own garden) -Marigolds (A hungry snails will eat these despite myths that they are repellent to pests) -Salvia (red flowering ones as mentioned before) -Hostas (will destroy them) -Chrysanthemum (they climb onto my outdoors container every day) -Verbenas (I have red flowering creeping kinds) -Justicia Carnea (a beauty but snails destroyed this plant for me) -Hen and chicks (I have the silvery-bluish variety with long stocks with flower-like leaves on top) (they donÂt eat the plant per se but they love the decaying matter found on these weird things) --- Where they love to hide/breed/live (also from experience observing in my garden) -Ajugas (snails donÂt eat them per se but the multiplying nature of this ground cover makes an ideal place for them to hide during the day under well protected moist, dark crowds of ajuga plants, ideal place to breed too since eggs are able to hatch undisturbed here) -Verbenas (if planted in the ground and they creep, covering the ground) -Creeping Juniper (they wonÂt eat these beauties but this creepy grass makes a great place for them to breed/hide during the day, also for overwintering because this thing is evergreen) -Monkey grass (monkey grass looks beautiful along our driveway but the crowded nature of this beauty makes ideal snail breeding ground although they never damage the grass itself, also a great place for snails to overwinter since it is evergreen) -Calla Lilli garden (where a crowd of these are growing along the yard, especially the weedy invasive red flowering kind makes a perfect moist hiding and breeding grown, also overwintering) -Pine bark mulch (yes, pine barks are there to preserve moisture, snails love moisture too, and protection, also ideal place for them to overwinter). --- I hope you find this informative. I donÂt normally have slug (the one without shells) problem but I have a lot of problems with the brown garden snails. Did you know snails are sexless? They can basically reproduce by themselves and they donÂt have a male or female gender. Each snail can breed many more snails no matter what! Urgh!

Every morning I put some table salt in the plastic bag from the newspaper or use the one from days past and hand pick the snails. 22 years ago when we moved into this house we had huge bags of snails and slugs and I have an acre of roses, cactus and especially succulants which snails love but now I just find a few big ones and mostly babies which will grow fast. Hornworms were always my biggest enemies on veggies but I'm not into veggies this year. Deadline liquid used to be a great help putting a nice line around the plants.

You're right gardeniagirl21, they are non-discriminating. They will go after anything they can chew up, including tree seedlings. I have even seen small tree stems that are still green chewed off by them. Their absolute most favorate foods are lettus, strawberries, cabbage, brocoli, colliflower, spinich, beans, peas, tomatoes (as long as they don't have to clime the stems), and anything else like what I listed. I have heard many home remidies for the little slime balls. Remidies such as salt circles around the plants, egg shells sprinkled around them, gravels with rough edges spread across the surface of the soil, broken bits of glass, basically anything with sharp edges or salt contents. As long as it doesn't rain, the slug/snail baits will work as long as you spread it thick enough. I have also heard of taking citrus and cutting them in half, hollow them out leaving the skin half whole, and placeing the skins cut side down in the garden. The next morning, see if there are any slugs/snails under them and dispose of them if there are. We've tried this method but it hasn't ever worked for us.

yeah a lot of the methods only partly work some of the time. so its like...lessening the damage, not completely eliminating it. one thing that does work - seaweed. only, unfortunately, it is very salty and the salts arent that great for getting in your soil, but its those very salts that the slugs hate. partially rinsed off theres still lots of salt on the seaweed, and it is a good amendment once it breaks down and releases minerals and nutrients.... another thing is placing boards around the garden. the slugs love these, and use them to hide underneath...they munch your plants at night (f*@#ers!!!!) and then when the sun comes up they go to sleep under the boards, usually stuck upsidedown to the bottom. so then every day if you go out and lift up the boards, you can get a couple + off each board on a daily basis. beer traps also work.