Just leave the snails , they basically clean your pond of dead material . If you buy some Koi , you wont have any snails left .My one pond got a few leechs transfered to it will some new plants but the Koi ate everyone of them . Buy some Koi and try not to use chemicals .

Thanks Groundbeef & Magdaloonie! I don't think they'll be taking an oath of celibacy any time soon, & we don't have any goldfish - So... we'll try to find someone with fish :) Tho' we've got some *massive* grackles here lately chasing everyone off so that they can luxuriate in the bird baths - maybe I'll sneak some snails in there while they are around and see if they'll eat them :P -A

Clown Loaches are the best IMO, however they do grow large and live long if they acclimate well. 12"+ in length and up to 30-50yrs some say. I have a 29G and bought 3 originally @1" each. 2 died within 24hrs, as did there replacements. I have only 1 for now, I never got arround to getting him new freinds. I will soon, one of my next purchases when home renevations are done. Any how they are slow growers, my 1" clown is about 3" after 2-3yrs. The snails usually die off somewhat after they deplete the food source in the new environment. Do several small PWC's to remove any built up nutrients. Are the plants new ? New meaning less then 6 months. If there presence does not bother you don't worry about them, they stay small and they are harmless (if they are pond snails). An other trick is to wilt a piece of lettuce (microwave oven speeds this up) and drop it in the aquarium at night. In the morning remove the lettuce with the attached snails. If you get your plants thriving, little to no wilting leaves, this will reduce "food" for them (thats how the lettuce trick works). But overall clown loaches are the easiest, and very cool fish. They "should" be kept in lots of 3+. This makes them less "shy" and very active.

Many years ago I lived in a tiny house with a tiny yard that had a ridiculous number of slugs. I'm not sure if the the slugs were coming from the surrounding woods, under the house foundation, or where, but one dared not walk outside barefoot in the evenings for fear of having a slug sliding up between the toes. (shudder!) Since it was a small yard with mostly rough field grass and only a few garden areas, we tried setting traps (the beer type,) but the found the traps were overwhelmed by the sheer number of slugs. We ended up getting some 6" spikes and going out on damp evenings and skewering slugs and then scraping them off into cans of soapy water which we would then be sure were full of water and fasten lids onto to drown the slugs. We also put out boards and during the day we would flip the boards and squish the slugs which had taken shelter from the day's heat. I'm not sure how much of a dent all this made in the slug population, but it sure made me feel better. Since you have kitties, Escar-Go! Slug & Snail Control is a slug bait made by Gardens Alive which is pet-safe. Don't know if that is the case with Sluggo since I do know that some slug baits aren't safe around small kids and animals. There are probably other pet-safe slug baits - this is the only one I know about. I have heard that crushed eggshells around particularly vulnerable plants is supposed to help keep out softbodied critters, but in my experience the birds remove the eggshells faster than I can eat eggs so I don't know if it actually works. Here is a link that might be useful: Escar-Go! Slug & Snail Control