snail repellent

On the tv gardening program 'Vasilis Garden' on Ch 31 (a community tv channel here in Sydney), the host described how to make a snail repellent spray.

He collected about 15 live snails, crushed them in a saucepan and added a litre of hot water. This was boiled for 10 minutes, allowed to cool and the liquid strained into a spray bottle. He then sprayed this liquid over the foliage of garden seedlings and on the outside of pots, anywhere that he wanted snails repelled from.

I'm describing this in case someone with a snail problem cares to try it and can let the rest of us know whether it works. I'm skeptical but open minded. :)

One final word: one of her good kitchen saucepans might not be the wisest choice...

-- John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Reply to
John Savage
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Sounds like how they create biological weapons...

Reply to
Jonno

If you're talking about usual garden snails then they are edible. Putting them in a pan with hot water would make soup. :)

Kimberly

Reply to
Kimberly

That's a completely new twist on an old recipe. Dunno if I like the sound of boiling the snails.

The more usual way to make this spray for any insect pest is to collect the bug that is to be destroyed, to put it in her blender, add cold water then blend it and then to leave the resulant stew to ferment for a few days before straining and then using the strained juice on the plant which had the problem bug.

Reply to
Farm1

Does this actually work? I'd like to try it with cabbage worms......

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

It's hit or miss; if some of your cabbage worms are already infected with BT, you'll spread it around to the others, which is good. The commercial BT wettable powder works well for me. Of course, some of the GM products out are actively breeding BT resistant bugs, so farmers will have to use the [unnamed chemical company, without whom profits themselves would be impossible] products.

But that's just my opinion.

I may be wrong.

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Reply to
Gary Woods

strained

:-))) I only have one blender so there is NO way I'm going to try it till I can find another blender cheap in a second hand shop.

It's touted to work by the organic mob (or is it the biodynamic??? or perhaps I've read of it in Jackie French's books???). It does make some sense to me though. The smell of a fellow humans rotting remains would be enough to turn me off going near a place so I suspect that it may just work with bugs.

Let me know how it works please ;-)))

Reply to
Farm1

Om were you thinking of the cabbage grubs that are laid by the white cabbage butterflies? If you were then this does work. Make up some fake cabbage butterflies (I use the white opaque plastic form old milk cartons) and mark then so that they have the black markings of real cabbage butterflies with a felt tip pen and then put them on bamboo stakes and put them around your cabbages. The cabbage butterfly is territorial and will go elsewhere if it thinks that that cabbage is already taken by another cabbage butterfly.

Reply to
Farm1

Anyone that trusts Monsanto is a fool....

If the only reason to do this is to harvest BT, it'd be less trouble just to buy it. ;-) I understand it's not expensive.

I've honestly never tried it but I think it's about time I did.

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

That sounds interesting... I've never seen the actual butterflies. These are the little bastards that killed my horseradish and did a number on my chard and brocolli:

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largest was maybe 1" long at most. I killed dozens of them but I had to get them at dawn and dusk. They were so destructive so fast! I lost the horseradish but managed to save the other stuff. I just killed everything by hand.

The chickens I had at the time feasted happily.

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

what an elegant solution, I'll use that idea. Thanks

Reply to
peter

It may not work. Ive seen them come through in flocks and it doesnt seem to deter them...

Reply to
Jonno

any. Last year I tried the opaque plastic fake butterfly trick and didn't ahve any probs with my broccoli.

Reply to
Farm1

bamboo

One more trick. I put the little fake butterflys on the tiny bamboo sate sticks then push these sticks into the tops of bigger bamboo staking sticks.

Reply to
Farm1

Hm. I'll have to try that this fall......

Thanks!

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

Just remember if you try this to watch your eyes. Is far better to use something like the plastic bread bag sealer thingos and to cover any sharp bits.

Richard

Reply to
Loosecanon

So, add garlic and butter to taste.

Bon apetite!!

Reply to
John Savage

Why bother making plastic b'flies? Just catch some real ones, add a dab of wood glue and fix them to the end of sticks that you can move around your plants as needed! That way you reduce the population of moths into the bargain! But I admit the real ones are not as rain resistant as the plastic replicas.

I think you are right about them being territorial. I recall many a time seeing a white moth lazily bobbing around my father's cabbage patch until it neared another when one would zoom into the path of the first until they seemed to momentarily collide and then one would leap away to put some distance between them. At the time I assumed I was witnessing an attempt at romance, and subsequent rebuff, but now that you have pointed it out, this behaviour could have been a moth protecting its patch.

For Australian readers: Noisy miner and Indian mynah birds just love catching moths on the wing. Currawongs are good at it, too.

Reply to
John Savage

white

I'll bet you took the wings off flies as a youngster :-)))

It took about 3 minutes to cut up a milk carton and put a few spots of texta on. It would have taken much more time for me to try to catch the blighters.

But do you have any ideas for getting rid of currawongs? The mongrel bastards eat smaller birds and I need my wrens for aphid patrols. BTW, the aphids have arrived and still not a sign of any ants anywhere near the roses but the wrens are very active.

Reply to
Farm1

A good way to increase your local wren population is to provide them with nesting sites. A lot of my birdhouse gourd houses are occupied every year, sometimes twice in a season. :-)

Easy to make too.

I have quite a few birdhouse gourd seeds on hand if you want some?

Reply to
OmManiPadmeOmelet

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