USE: Decollate snails attack the common brown garden snail (Helix snail) and the snail’s eggs. They will also eat decaying plant material, which keeps them fed when they can’t find snails but they will always prefer pest snails if they are present.

RELEASE: The best time is in the late afternoon or evening. Thoroughly water the area where they are to be released. Put them out in groups of 3 or 4 in areas where they are likely to find brown snails to eat. The more pest snail breeding areas you treat with decollates the better the results.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Snail baits and poisons should not be used for about 30 days prior to release. This can be less if the area has been regularly watered. Chemical fertilizers should also be discontinued for a couple of months while the decollates are getting established. To help get them started, you may feed them squashed brown snails, dead leaves, or rabbit food pellets (available at pet stores)

LIFE CYCLE: Decollates have a two year life span and during that time will lay as many as 2,000 eggs. After hatching, maturity takes about five months. They normally live in the upper inch of the soil, just under the surface, and for this reason you may not see much of them after you release them. But when it rains or the area is watered, they will come to the surface to feed on brown snails. They do not normally climb walls and fences unless they are flooded out.

GENERAL INFORMATION: Using decollate snails can be an effective way to control pest snails, but it does not happen over night. It takes a few weeks for them to get established in their new environment and have a noticeable effect on the pest snail population, and a year or more to really take control.

In times of stress, the decollate retreats into its shell and seals itself in with a membrane across the opening to conserve moisture. They appear to be dead and can exist this way for weeks. Contact with water usually brings them back to activity. If some do not emerge from their shell, they may be submerged in a pan of water for 3 or 4 minutes and then released.