snails are eating Chinese Elm leaves

I have small snails on my Chinese Elm. They are eating on the leaves. I have been picking them off daily ( and squishing them) for the past two weeks, hoping I would "get them all". I have not noticed them on any other tree. I suspect that they came from the elm they are infesting. What would you recommend? Thank you for your suggestions.
Todd

Todd,
Sink a shallow container of beer into the soil so it is flush with the soil line. This works very well for slugs and I have caught many snails using this method as well. Just an idea to try.

Todd

You need to get them before they spread. Unfortunately, the most effective molluscicides are not available to the general public. There is snail bait for sale, but you have to make sure your dog can't get at it. Meanwhile, I suggest you keep your elm on a different table away from your other trees.
Iris

But he beer works.

Just, for heaven's sake, don't waste GOOD beer. The snails don't know the difference between Bass Ale and Miller Lite (shudder).

Snails can be yet another indicator that your tables are too damp.

Jim,
I'm with you. Use all the Miller Lite you want but leave the good beers for yourself. Anyway good luck.

Todd

Skip the beer, drink SCOTCH! If you drink enough you won't care about the snails!

I haven't used beer in potted plants before, but I have used it in my vegetable garden. Works wonders. I believe it is the smell of the yeast that draws them in, but it is the alcohol that causes them to dry out. If you have a small container with Coors, Stag or whatever the local "garbage" beer is it will work. If you don't keep beer around, make a culture of bread yeast, water it dow and when puting in the container, add several tablespoons of rubbing alcohol.

Don't bother with making up a mixture. You can buy a single can at the nearest convenience store for a dollar. I didn't mean to single out Miller Lite -- ANY light beer (and not a few American non-light beers (Coors, Pabst, etc.)) will do the job -- though if they know you at the store, buying them will ruin your reputation.

Scotch -- bleagh!

Scotch, it makes all men invincable and all women beautiful.

Also, frequently used to sanitize the inside of a bagpiper's pipe bag. The recipe calls to pour one shot of 12-year-old single malt scotch into the piper, one shot of cheap scotch into the bag, pour another shot of single malt into the piper, then swish the scotch in the bag around to kill all the bacteria, pour another shot of single malt into the piper, dump the scotch out of the bag into a shot glass, pour a single malt into a shot glass. Share the bag scotch with your mother-in-law (no sense in wasting a shot of scotch even if it is poor quality and slightly used!) Drink your shot (Whaever ya do laddie, don''t get tha to confused) ... to her health, or lack thereof! Drink one final shot to the Queen Mum and one to William Wallace, and another to Scotland and one to yer acquaintences acrosht do puhond! Aaand, it's off to tha pub, cuz yer outa scotch! Don't ferget the pipes, you might need them at the pub!

Jay

One of my favorite subjects.

No snails here but instead slugs, some 6" long and fat as your index finger.



I used Deadline until it got to $15/quart, now there is one called Turf King, same ingredients for half the price. i don't want my dogs near the trees anyway, so those down low are behind a short wire fence. Cats I don't care about.

You can also dribble a line of salt around the trees (not on their soil!). Watch the snails try to cross it. If they touch it they will immediately begin to fizz and look like they are melting (always fatal.)

Thank you all for the tips! I am in the habit of watering down the benches due to the very high temperatures and my work schedule; the extra humidity helps the trees until I get home to water. Now that the temps are in the high 80's to low 90's, I can relax.
I have used beer before in veggie gardens, but not the bonsai benches - "time to find cheap ale in a can - and fill the suiban... good bye snails"

Slugs ARE snails. Depending on species, they either don't have shells, or vestigial shells are covered by the soft body.

Beer is cheaper and less toxic than those baits.

I thought that slugs and snails were related somehow. Now I know. Thanks, Jim.

Just one further suggestion. (I use everything to keep the blighters off my Hostas, they don't seem to find my Elms at all attractive.) Copper wire or even better specially made copper sticky tape is brilliant, as they will not cross it.

Try changing your watering shedule to the morning. Slugs and Snails won't have that slippery surface to mess about on at night time. Good time of the day to Judge your trees as well, when the mind is fresh and ready for the day.

The beer is poured and I'm waiting for them to find my..."hospitality"!