snails eating water lettuce!! :

[sooks]

The snails are tearing my water lettuce apart faster than they are reproducing!!! :'( Does anyone know a quick way to get rid of them without harming my fishes? Thanks!!

[KatFish]

I'm no help, but I'm overrun too.  They're tearing up my lillies!!!!     I've been hand picking them, but you know snails...

[PondmaninAL]

I have just cleaned out my lily pond section of my above ground pond and it was over ran with snails. I probably haven't totally removed them but I would say that I've gotten 90% of them. Every water lily that came out of that pond either had egg coated pads removed or there were just a few eggs and I just washed them off. The eel grass that was in there got moved in the tank with the goldfish who love extra food in their tank like snails. The only fish that are going to be in the lily pond will be mosquito fish and I think that they will eat some of the baby snails that are left. Most of the big ones got evicted out of the pond or tossed into the koi tank. I did things with a little more labor but there are chemicals and there are fish. I don't use chemicals at all. Not even dechlorinater because I'm on well water. Loaches will eat snails but I think that is only for warm climates like Zone 9 and up.

That's my $.02 worth. Maybe others can help more. I use to love snails but with them backing up the China Marks moth larvae in destroying my water lilies, it's time they moved on. I'll keep them in the shallow troughs that have marginals in them.

[Bullfrog]

Put speakers around your pond and play Barry Manilow music, the snails will leave but everything else probably will too.

[PondmaninAL]

Bullfrog, that would probably work as long as the snails don't like Barry Manilow music.

[Bullfrog]

They actually did this i9n New Zealand. They didn't like the punk rockers hanging out in the mall so they piped in Manilow non stop, worked like a charm...

Shopping Mall Hopes Manilow Tunes Will Repel Teen Vagrants
by Lee Bains — Mar 6th 2009 at 1:12PM

Community leaders in Christchurch, New Zealand hope that the songs of Barry Manilow will deter juvenile delinquents from congregating at the town's outdoor mall, according to an AP report at Yahoo! News.


While recent auditory repulsion techniques have met disapproval from certain quarters, Christchurch's Central City Business Association manager Paul Lonsdale hopes that piping Manilow tunes through the mall's P.A. will be less controversial. "The intention is to change the environment in a positive way .. so nobody feels threatened or intimidated," he explained to the AP. Manilow, pictured above (no, that's not Rod Stewart's older sister), has long been known for his unobtrusive songs and mellow croons.

Say what he will, Lonsdale has to know that "Mandy" is to teenagers what kryptonite is to Superman. While we're pretty sure that this plan -- if implemented -- would deter teenagers, we're also afraid of the prospect of an entire town being populated by clones of this dude.

Here's a link


http://www.switched.com/2009/03/06/manilow-tunes-will-repel-teen-vagrants-new-zealand-mall-hopes/
 

[PondmaninAL]

That was punk rockers, not snails.

[Bullfrog]

It would sure run me off.

It is a well known fact that snails prefer classical music and have the normal, natural aversion to Barry Manilow music as well they should. In laboratory tests, snails have been known to actually cover their ears with their telescoping eyes while they fled the scene when Manilow music was played. When their egress was blocked some snails got agitated to the point of violence and trampled other snails in their desperate attempt to flee the discomfort, others actually tried to leap to their deaths. Prolonged exposure to his music caused seizures, excessive faltulous, psychotic episodes, depression and loose bowels.

I do sincerely hope that someone has the real answer, but I love to have fun on the net with my friends. I could amuse myself for hours, if no one else.

[PondmaninAL]

Careful Bullfrog, or I'll play Barry Manilow music.

[Roark]

Done carefully, a stiff dose of organophosphate will set the snails back without hurting the fish as long as you have reasonably hard water.  (Soft water means all bets are off).

Roark

[ThornyGardener]

A stiff dose of organ... wha? Might this have a tradename more familiar to we mere mortals, Roark?

[Bullfrog]

Careful Bullfrog, or I'll play Barry Manilow music.

Please, anything but that or ABBA.