Hi, Absolutely throw away every plant. Clean out all of the gravel and soil and throw that way too. They have all been contaminated with snails and worms. And make sure you sterilize everything with bleach that goes back into the terrarium including the aquarium. This is very important or you will just introduced the snails and worms back into your terrarium. Using a base of stones sounds good. The jury is still out on the charcoal. Some people think it is needed. Other people say that once the charcoal has absorbed all it can it will start to put contaminants back into the echo system. Next, one needs to put a barrier in between the base and the substrate. This keeps the potting medium from falling into and in between the rocks. The rocks don't do much good if there are no air spaces in between them. Nylon screen from the hardware store works very well. Make sure you get the nylon screen not metal screen. Put your potting medium on top of the screen. What rhizo means by " soilless mix" is a potting a medium that is devoid of loam and worm castings. In other words no dirt. One soilless mix could be milled spagnum, vermiculite and perlite. There are other soilless mixes that one can make or buy. I'm going to let Al and rhizo chime in on that one. I don't know if you know it, but there is a terrarium forum on GW. You might ask some of your questions over there too. Also, start reading through all of the entries. There is a wealth of information out there. Black jungle also has a page devoted to setting up a terrarium. I will put a link to it below. They talk about co-co bedding at black jungle. Again, the jury is out on that too. The people over on the terrarium forum swear by it. The people on the African violet forum swear at it. African violets seem to do poorly in co-co bedding. Since I will have a couple of violets in my terrarium I will not be using the mix. Anyway, I hope this helps. Again, I'm just new to this too. Good luck. Larry Here is a link that might be useful: Terrarium Basics

I believe that it's the liquid coffee sprayed on the plants that deters snails and slugs - the coffee grounds don't do much. If you apply them very heavily, you tend to get mold. Use the coffee grounds as a light sprinkling around acid-loving plants, or add them to your compost pile - earthworms like them. The caffeine, either in your compost or sprayed on the plants, won't be enough to make a difference. I know that spraying oil of peppermint mixed with water around a room, almost daily, will deter mice from making their home there. You could try using either the oil or fresh or dried mint leaves, scattered around the plants you want to protect, or tossed down holes. Other essential oils might be a deterrent also. If you could persuade one to move in, a nice big blacksnake would thin the vole population. I am just glad I only have meadow voles, which can do a sufficient amount of damage, but .... My cats and dog seem to keep them under control.

Oh my goodness! California has not yet set their best do gooders on the kill Sluggo and Escargo mission. The Swiss are ahead of them. I have used Escargo for years. My worm count at it's best three years ago was twelve to twenty in the turn of a single garden spade from an organic content of seventeen percent. That also was at the height of the largest one time observation of egg laying I have yet to witness. Escargo has been in use here on the same ground for as long as it has been available without any noticeable harm to anything but the slugs. The robins and moles eat more worms than Sluggo or Escargo harm. On that great garden soil I have grown nine hundred pound Atlantic Giant pumpkins, ninety eight inch Long Gourds and up to five pound tomatoes. The Long Gourd was the largest such gourd grown in Pennsylvania a few years ago. The genetics in that seed produced more over a hundred inch gourds in the history of the sport. All of these items grew with the protection of Escargo in close and continuous use to protect them from an army of slugs.

Julie - the shrub is Viburnum tinus and the pest is Viburnum beetle. Snails seldom eat tough shrub leaves like these unless they're desperate and they leave much larger areas of damage. V tinus flowers in the winter. Here is a link that might be useful: Viburnum beetle