Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Addendum to "From the Comments" post

Victor K. Polk wrote: I put pieces of shingle (Or anything else you can find) on the moist ground. In the morning you will find slugs under the pieces. Spray them with ammonia. They instantly dissolve. Ammonia breaks down quickly and is also a fertilizer.

Mr Polk's comment specifically mentioned "slugs" while my main issues are "snails" which are similar but not identical.

Fortunately, Mr Polk's comment is a testable-hypothesis. This wasn't included in the original post because the testing was still in-progress.

Picture taken at about 9:00 a.m. after turning over board.
 
A close-up to make it easier to see the population-density of the snails.
I sprayed the areas where they were the thickest with cloudy ammonia.

The snails clearly did not like the experience.

I waited two hours before revisiting the spot. I assume that all of the survivors would make a dash for the exits.

Not exactly the same spot, but within a few feet of it.
 
A close-up of the battlefield. Not a lot of color contrast, but there are about 40 dead snails in that picture.
Thank-you for your comment Mr. Victor k. Polk. It seems to work on snails, too.

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