A few weeks ago, I published Kathy Ingraham’s testimonial regarding the disappearance of the common European brown snail from her garden. I asked readers of this column if something similar had happened to them.
Here are some of your responses, creating an ice cream cone shaped snail free territory whose top stretches from Westlake Village to Chatsworth to La Canada to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside and whose bottom dovetails between Laguna Niguel and Murrieta.
“Just mentioned to the wife yesterday that I had not seen a snail for a couple of years.” – John Dalrymple, Westlake Village
“Decrease in snails may be due to lack of dichondra lawns that they loved to munch. After a drought many years ago, I changed my lawn to Marathon. No more snails.” – Wayne Knitter, Chatsworth
“In my neighborhood, the squirrels seem to migrate from one area to another. Don’t know why. When the squirrels are in residence, there are no snails.” – Glenn Shindler, La Canada
“I have seen a total decline in snails in my garden in the past few years. They have always thrived in my multiple beds of Agapanthus. But no more.” – Kenneth Hill, Altadena
“We have noticed a lack of snails in our yard for a few years. A neighbor told us that the opossums in our yard are eating them.” – Sharon Vestal, Rancho Cucamonga
“I work in a few yards in this area and I don’t see normal round snails anymore and have not in at least 5 years.” (A photo of carnivorous decollate snails was attached) – Adam Johnson, Riverside
“I have noticed that I have seen virtually no snails in my area for the last two years.” — Jill Jones, Topanga/Woodland Hills
“My yard is regularly watered by a sprinkler system even through the hot summer. The yard has not been dry and yet the snails are gone now.” – Dave Berndt, Burbank
“Ever since raccoons began coming around my yard I haven’t seen a snail in sight.” – Grace Hampton, Burbank
“While I am not missing snails I have wondered what happened to them.” Diane Sopher, Central (near Marina) del Rey
“In January 2018, I first noticed the absence of snails in my yard, and they have not returned.” – Mary Ann Popoff, Montebello
“We have noticed lack of snails since we went to drip irrigation to conserve water, while we have had less precipitation with hotter-dryer summers.” – Jeff Watts, Manhattan Beach
“Snails started disappearing from my Torrance yard about 10 years ago. At that same time, the proliferation of squirrels started happening. Besides squirrels, there has been an increase in raccoons and opossums in the area.” — Nancy Trudnowski, Torrance
“We too have noticed the absence of snails for the past several years.” – Joe Arnett, Lomita
“I was just mentioning to my parents a few months back that we don’t have any snails anymore.” – Jessica Washington, Lakewood
“Snails are being eaten by rats, skunks, and opossums at night as these predators are all nocturnal. I find the cracked-open shells in the garden.” – Nancy Rennie, Fullerton
“My large yard is always watered but I haven’t seen any snails for a few years. What we do have in recent years is a very large number of lizards. Wondering if they ate the snails?” – Jim Konopisos, Fullerton
“I too, have noticed the lack of snails in and around my yard and garden in the last several years.” – Noelle Reminiskey, Fullerton
“I haven’t seen a snail for 4 or 5 years, nor any crows, nor woodpeckers.” – Donald Palmer, Fullerton
“I used to have TONS of snails. Then the opossums came and now I have NONE.” – Treva Wishart, Anaheim
“I too have noticed the lack of snails here.” – Sharon Barty, Anaheim Hills
“I used to have them all over and they just disappeared about two years ago.” – Jim Phillips, Garden Grove
“After giving up on dichondra and planting a Marathon lawn and getting rid of the begonias my snail population started to decrease in population and we haven’t had any snails for at least 25 years.” – Stan Lutz, Santa Ana
“I have also noticed the disappearance of snails in my gardens for the last few years. I have replaced many of my plants with more drought-tolerant varieties. I think that the drought and less watering has caused them to die off — finally!!!” – Laura McCabe, Fountain Valley
“We used to have quite a few snails each year, but over the last few years we have not seen any.” – Ed Arnold, Fountain Valley
“We have not had any snails for at least 2 years.” – Jerry Aspland, Fountain Valley
“We don’t have watering restrictions. In the mornings I used to go out and see lots of snails. The last few years I have seen none.” – Linda Dyer, Irvine
“ I have noticed the absence of snails the past few years. I have a 40+-year-old tortoise that I’ve had since I was a kid and I would go snail hunting in the yard to bring him snails to eat. Unfortunately, they have all but disappeared.” – Marcie Hague, Trabuco Canyon
“Over the last few years, I’ve noticed fewer and fewer snails.” — Carrie Chotiner, Laguna Niguel
“I used to have hundreds of them in my gardens and grass. Then about 4-5 years ago they just stopped coming. Fine with me!” – Jeff Gavitt, Murietta
“I’ve also noticed the absence of snails. However, I don’t consider it a mystery because the disappearance followed the installation of a large bird feeder several feet away from the garden beds. Birds aren’t neat, and plenty of birdseed falls to the ground where other birds peck at it amid the ground cover where the snails once left their eggs. I figured the birds were finding and eating all the baby snails and slugs.” – Mark Coast, Murietta
In summary, although some of you associate the disappearance of snails with less water in the garden, it seems that ravenous urban wildlife is chiefly responsible for the snails’ vanishing act. Some of you live in communities without water rationing and still the snails are gone.
So how to explain the snails’ disappearance now? Although only one reader cited rats as a snail predator, the local rat population has increased in the greater Los Angeles area by as much as 50%, according to some estimates, over the last five years. Rats are surreptitious and difficult to detect, unlike opossums, raccoons, and skunks. I think it is reasonable to hypothesize that a burgeoning rat population could have a lot to do with the snails’ disappearance.
Tip of the Week: I received two replies that attest to the continued presence of snails and both describe scenarios where coyotes appear to be the dominant wildlife. In both of these cases, coyotes are probably keeping nocturnal snail predators under control.
“The snails have all taken over my irises! I have been putting coffee grounds around the plants to keep them away, but I think I only get jittery snails… We do have coyotes. They walk in the three entry gates and may just live here. Sightings are often reported.” – Michelle LaMantagne, Leisure World, Seal Beach
“We had snails worse than ever in 2019, I mean an absolute, unbelievable, uncontrollable deluge of snails this past year, as did our neighbors. Our home backs up to Friendship Park. We’ve lived here for about 15 years and have not seen anything like it… My community definitely has a coyote issue. It has been a few years since I’ve seen a raccoon (which isn’t normal), and there do seem to be fewer skunks as well. The park we back into is mostly just scrub and coyotes definitely live there.” – Rick McCalllister, Rancho Palos Verdes
So if you still have snails, blame the omnivorous coyotes for dining on the opossums, raccoons, skunks, rats, squirrels, and lizards that would otherwise be eating them.
As a general rule, a hygienic garden is most snail-friendly. A well-mulched garden is not. Where snails have nothing else to eat, they go for plants. They would rather eat rotting than fresh green leaves. Also, if you use a mulch that consists of what comes through a tree trimmer’s shredder (and is freely available), its rough edges will deter snails since they are disinclined to scratch their smooth torsos when moving over it.
