Does anyone know these? And how to get rid of them? I f possible, I don't wanna kill them, I just don't want them to be in my yard, since they just eat every little sprout before it has a chance to grow :-/ Sorry, I don't know what they are called in english, so I don't know whether there has been a post about it.
Holey Moley! Boy that is one ugly bug and I sure am glad we don't get them here. Looks like a pretty tough little bugger with those big fake eyes and all. I'd be getting it into jar and off the the local nursery or wildlife centre for identification pronto! Find out what conditions it thrives in. Or you may be able to tell this yourself by looking at the garden. Does it like the heat and dry? Then keep things moist. Does it like the moist and wet? Then keep things as dry as you can such as watering in the morning so it dries up quicker than at night. In the meantime protect your sprouts and seedlings. Use old xrays or recycle plastic bottles by cutting off the tops and bottoms and placing this into the earth around the plants to form a barrier. It looks like some sort of snail do u think? A humane way to deal with them is beer! Place a few half empty cans around the garden and they will soon be attracted into them, then they will be too drunk to ever return to the garden if you know what I mean. They'd prefer this over your sprouts and leave them alone I'm sure. Let us know how u go! August xx
well, you are right, these things are pretty nasty, and the bad thing is, they are very common in central europe.... And it is some sort of snail. just without a "house". So I found some things: -make it more comfortable for their natural enemies like hedgehogs, or keeping ducks is good, as they eat them too. - keep the ground as dry as possible, since they can only survive in moisture - there are special fences for the beds, that are suppose to keep them off but that doesn't work that good. - make a special bed with plants just for them, there are plants that they like best - they are attracted by beer, so one can make beer traps. which is actually kind of nasty.....and they drown in there - and one can but hiding places near the beds, and then clean them out every morning. (they are mostly night active, because days are too hot and dry in the summer) -Last but not least, there's always poison.... but there is a new one that is even allowed for bio farms, and the rules are pretty strict for that in germany. so it just poisons the beasts and not the animals that eat them. But this would be my last option and also the most expensive and immoral. So there is plenty of alternatives.....
