Did I use too much snail bait?

Hello, all: I'm a new homeowner and first-time gardener so you'll have to forgive questions that no doubt will seem naive and silly.

In any event, I bought some Safer's Slug and Snail Bait because I have snails in my front garden. Which has some assorted annual and perennial plants and flowers in it. The box says that it contains ferric phosphate at .76%.

I spread these pellets throughout the garden, but was a bit concerned that I had used too much. It's hard to say in a newsgroup how much is "too much" (like "there are on average 97 pellets per square foot"). For the sake of argument, let's say I did use too much. Will these pellets hurt my plants?

I'm not excited about the idea of going out there with a teaspoon and fishing most of the pellets out.

Many thanks for any information!

David in Toronto

Reply to
WPB
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Were the snails harming your plants?

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Yes, eating the flowers in the little bit of summer gardening I had last year after moving in.

Reply to
WPB

If the active ingredient in your slug and snail bait was iron phosphate, 1%, then the application rate on the stuff I use says one tablespoon per square yard.

Reply to
Vox Humana

you will be fine. the stuff is extremely diluted. I am guessing that even a pound per 10 square feet would be OK, if there is any organic matter in the soil. I use the same bait and I am guessing 50 to 100 pellets per square foot is my dose, once a year, right now.

Reply to
simy1

Well, if the poison makes you nervous, and you have a friend with a fireplace, ask them to save you some ashes. It annoys slugs and snails. Obviously, not the precise effect you're looking for, but still......

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Many thanks to everyone for the information and advice.

Eventually I'll learn everything I need to know about my garden . . . . in about ten years or so.

David ____________________________________________

Reply to
WPB

Not even world-famous gardeners, landscape designers, & horticulturalists who have devoted their whole lives to gardening ever learn everything they need to know.

-paghat the ratgirl

Reply to
paghat

At what application rate did the label on the container say to apply these slug pellets?

Reply to
bamboo

Don't be a smartass. Nobody reads instructions. :-)

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Ha! Not true. *I* read the instructions . . . . . after applying the slug bait.

The instructions said to apply 5 grams per cubic meter. The box is 500 grams. So about 100th of a box/cubic meter. I applied a lot more than that. But 5 grams (which to me would be about 5 pellets per cubic meter) just didn't seem like enough. I'd say I laid about 50 pellets/cubic meter.

David

Reply to
WPB

This is why there should be a test at point of sale for pesticides! No doubt some group would claim discrimination against dyslexics and idiots. Really difficult questions like- - - How many fingers am I holding up. Which is bigger a teaspoon or a tablespoon. If a teaspoon is 5 cc how many cc are 2 teaspoons What is a respirator What telephone number is 911 Whose telephone number is this- 1-800-222-1222

Reply to
bamboo

I've found that you don't need to shotgun the entire yard with snail bait for it to be effective. There are typically only key areas where you want/need snail bait, such as near roses, flower gardens, near key plants. Surprisingly you don't need a lot of bait to do the job, the snails/slugs do a good job of finding the bait on their own.

Also if you have dogs or small children, consider using the powdered version, instead of the pellets, until the pellets soak up enough water to turn into a clump of sawdust you run the risk of a kid or pet thinking it's something tasty to eat. I like the powdered kind, because I can take an old laundry soap cup and use it to lightly dust the stuff around and get better coverage with less product.

If you drink coffee, the old coffee grounds supposedly works as a repellent.

-S

Reply to
Snooze

It all depends if you intend to use it to kill snails or fertilize your garden with it.

How many times over do you intend to kill the snails? Don't you know you can only kill them once?

Reply to
Cereus-validus.....

Yeah, by then you would have killed everything!!!!

Reply to
Cereus-validus.....

Hey, watch it they bucky boy.

That is dangerous thinking you are using there.

If it were up to people like you, Dubya would never have been elected president.

How do you think the world would have turned out if that happened?

You know he can't wave a magic wand and make gas prices go down. That's because he broke it getting the US to invade Iraq under false pretenses!!!

Reply to
Cereus-validus.....

Never argue with a fool, bystanders can't tell you apart.

Reply to
bamboo

That last one....is that "poisson control"? :-) That place what controls them fish? :-)

Reply to
Doug Kanter

No, that would be the place that has a special distribution of the fish.

Reply to
Paul Below

I would think that drenching the area would wash the excess away, if in fact it could be too much for the plants. On the other hand, there are more friendly methods to control the varmits. The first that comes to mind is handpicking at night when they're out & feeding, and trapping. They prefer a cool, dark, damp spot to spend the day, so creating a daytime hideout is an easy way to trap. My favorite is to roll up a section of newspaper into a tube, dampen it, and close one end. Check the trap in the morning, and if you've caught any, close the other end and toss out. For more information, the University of Calif. has a great publication on dealing with snails & slugs:

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luck!

Suzy, Zone 5, Wisconsin

"The way to avoid housework is to live outside." -Sandra Blacksmith, 1901

Reply to
Suzy O

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