Why Are The Garden Snails Burying Themselves?

We will discuss creatures that were originally brought over by the Romans, and every gardener’s worst nightmare, snails.

The fact that you’ve clicked on this article suggests that they’ve been burying themselves in your garden, and you need help to stop them.

In this article, we will be talking about why they do this, why it’s a problem, and what to do about it.

Why Snails Are Bad

Snails are not good for your garden because they’re vegan. Snails will munch away at all of your plants, whether that’s flowers, grass, or vegetables.

Snails also tend to feed on seedlings and new shoots, preventing the growth of many new plants in your garden.

Snails tend to feed at night, making it difficult to notice the damage they cause until you find obvious and large holes on your leaves the next morning.

Snails often carry parasitic worms and other diseases that may be hazardous to your pets and your loved ones.

After spending hours trying to make sure your garden is as beautiful as you can make it, these guys come along and ruin everything.

Or perhaps you’re growing vegetables and fruits in your garden to cook for dinner, and next thing you know, you find out the snails got to them first.

Why The Snails Bury Themselves

Weather

One reason for snails burying themselves is the weather. Snails love the rain and will dry up if they’re out in the sun for too long. If the weather is dry for an extended period of time, snails will stay underground to remain moist until the rain comes back.

Often, they will bury themselves in the ground to stop being exposed to the sun for too long and give them extra moisture. This will give them both protection from the sun and enough water.

When the sun dies down a bit, or if they’ve had enough water, they’ll come back up to the surface and start eating whatever vegan food they find.

This will usually happen in the evening when the sun dies down, but of course, it can happen before that.

They Lay Eggs

Another reason why snails bury themselves is to lay eggs.

Snail eggs are very fragile and delicious for birds and carnivorous insects.

To protect their eggs from the weather and predators, snail moms will bury themselves underground.

As well as keeping them safe, the soil will also give them the water they need to survive.

Although most of them will probably die, the mother gives birth to hundreds to increase the chances of at least some of them surviving.

Although baby snails are terrible for your garden, even I have to admit that they are kind of cute.

Why That’s Bad

If you find that snails are burying themselves, you need to get the issue sorted out before it gets out of hand.

If they’re burrowing due to the weather, there’s a great chance they’ll start munching on the roots of your plants. This can damage the whole plant.

If snails eat the green leaves of your garden plants, they will not be able to photosynthesize anymore, which will cause them to die eventually.

But it’s when they’re burrowing to lay eggs that you ought to become very concerned.

Every snail gives birth to hundreds of babies. This means hundreds of more snails to eat in your garden.

I know it sounds nasty, but you need to kill the baby snails when they’re still babies.

God, I feel nasty just saying that.

Birds – Why You Should Attract Them

The best thing that you can do to deal with snails is to attract birds.

Birds love snails, and they won’t damage your plants. Smaller birds will be particularly fond of smaller snails.

And because of their beaks, they’ll be able to fish them from under the soil.

By attracting birds, you will send a message to all the other snails around that your garden is a no-go zone.

By attracting birds to your garden, you’ll be able to deal with your snail problem.

How To Attract Birds

The best way to attract birds is by using bird feeders.

This will allow them to see that your garden is the kind of place they want to be.

And what better way to lure anyone than with food?

You can either put seeds into a glass bird feeder or simply hang balls of fat with seeds inside.

It’s also essential that you keep the bird feeders in different locations to attract a variety of birds.

Birds are very keen on both of them.

You could also try having a birdbath so they’ll have somewhere to wash their little feathers.

A solar birdbath could also help attract a larger number of birds with its soothing sound of moving water.

Having a birdhouse will also provide them with both shelter and a social club.

Snail Killer

Some of you might be tempted to use a store-brought snail killer.

These are little pellets that you put around your plants that kill the snails.

There’s no denying that they do the job. But there are a few reasons why birds are better.

The pellets will leave a bunch of dead snails lying around your garden- Yucky!
The pellets could damage your soil.
The pellets can also be dangerous for other animals, including birds, predatory insects, and even pets.
Other animals that may feed on the dead snails, such as birds or hedgehogs, can digest the toxic ingredient in these pellets, which would harm them.
They can be very expensive.

Pellets are a good idea if the snail issue is completely out of control, but it’s much better to attract birds most of the time.