Snail, snails, snails

The message from "Walter R." contains these words:

You must be doing something very interesting in there :-)

Snails grow quite slowly, so you can make a fast impact on a local population by collecting them in a bucket for rehoming. Damp evenings are often best. Children can be bribed per results. My sister lives in a snail nirvana and finds a bucket campaign each spring keeps numbers down enough to make gardening possible.

Janet.

I suggest the use of carnivorous decollate snails, which are legal and available in southern California. See . Note that decollates are NOT legal in northern California, where they feed on native snails that might be endangered species. The brown snails that create such destruction in southern California are not native and thus not protected.

The cited URL displays only the picture. Links to "Description", "Biology", etc display nothing.

The decollate snail (Rumina decollata) described on the same Web page is considered superior by commercial citrus growers for controlling the brown snail (Helix aspersa). The latter is a serious orchard pest in citrus groves, girdling and killing trees by eating the bark.

The release of decollate snails is restricted to certain southern California counties. They are prohibited in northern California because the prey on endangered native snails.

The brown snail is NOT a native, having been intentionally imported some 150 years ago as a source of escargot.