Summary of the case Brunsnegler has a vigorous sex life and lays many eggs. In autumn they hatch. Gardeners can help reduce the brown slug population by finding and removing the eggs. Brown snail eggs are chalk white and are often found under things in the garden. Many people use salt, vinegar and chemicals to fight brown slugs, but this can lead to a painful death for the brown slug and can harm other life in the garden. A humane killing method is to cut the snails at a specific point, or by using boiling water or freezing. Prevention, such as using shingle as a substrate, can help reduce brown slug populations. You can also take the eggs before the brown snail has hatched. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. At the end of September, the battle against the brown slug starts to wind down for most garden owners, but they can still make an effort. Because in autumn the brown snail lays eggs, and in clusters and in large quantities. The brown snail has a vigorous sex life. This is how the brown slug mates Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø First the brown slugs follow each other and smell each other. If they don’t like the smell, they slowly slide towards the next possible partner. If they find one that fits, they go in a circle so that they get a hole in the middle. There they twist out their genitals. Mating takes place in the white lump of jelly in the middle. This can last for 6 to 7 hours. With prelude and all. They rub against each other. Snails probably mate with many throughout the season. And each act lasts a long time. The brown snails then lay eggs. They are placed in several pools and hatched. Small snails hibernate. What percentage of the eggs become snails is unknown. The largest quantities of brown snail eggs are found in September and at the turn of the month towards October. Source: Garden expert Anne Tafjord Kirkebø and researcher Bjørn Arild Hatteland at Nibio. Researcher Bjørn Arild Hatteland at Nibio has been researching brown snails for almost 20 years. He says that in a counting operation in the Bergen area, between 30 and 150 eggs were found per cluster. The snails can lay several such clusters, and one snail can lay up to 400 eggs in total. Researcher Bjørn Arild Hatteland at Nibio. The eggs hatch in the autumn, and then the little brown snail children overwinter in various places. Thus, it is now a matter of finding the eggs. – The more you take now, the fewer there will be in the spring, says garden expert Anne Tafjord Kirkebø. Gardening expert Anne Tafjord Kirkebø thought the brown slug was smart. Instead of walking over gravel, for example, it can walk over a rhododendron. Photo: Sissel Rikheim / news “Must think like the snail” Kirkebø says that to find the snail’s eggs garden owners have to lift stones, boulders and logs, and basically everything they have in the garden. – You have to think like the snail: If I’m going to lay 20 eggs, where should I hide them? If you start looking around the garden, I think you can become quite good at finding the hiding places. Then you save a lot of work, says Kirkebø. Brown snails on courtship. They crawl after each other and know if the smell is right. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø Snail researcher Hatteland can easily identify snail eggs. – If you find clusters of chalky white eggs under things you’ve had lying around in the garden, there’s a good chance that you’ve found brown snail eggs, says Hatteland. If you come across such a cluster, the researcher has some tips on what you can do. – They need moisture, and we don’t think they tolerate UV light very well, so if you get them out during the day, we have the impression that they dry out and don’t get wet. But Hatteland says that it is difficult to say how big an effect such a cleaning operation in the garden actually has. Because the brown snails lay eggs near the roots of the plants and in forest wood. See here what the eggs look like: These eggs will eventually turn into brown slugs, and there can be many of them. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø Small brown snails hatch in autumn. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø Snegle eggs are not large. Here is a small bunch. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø Under a rock you can find both brown snails and eggs. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø Small eggs in withered plant roots. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø If you are looking, you can find. A brown snail can lay several clusters of eggs, and up to 400 pieces. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø “Must be handled in a humane way” Many people use salt, vinegar and chemicals to kill the brown snail. Kirkebø is skeptical about that. – I don’t like the thought of an animal – not even a snail – lying in agony in my garden. No one should be tormented. If you are going to kill it, I think you should do it very briefly and quickly. She admits that when there are too many brown slugs, they have to be taken. – We have to do that in a humane way, she says. And without salt, vinegar and chemicals. – It may well be that these substances kill the brown slug, but then you destroy so much life in the garden. Do you kill brown slugs in your own garden or elsewhere? Yes, I kill those I find. No, brown slugs are fine. Let them live! Snails? I don’t care. Show result Clipped in a special way Clipping is a humane and quick form of euthanasia, but it should be done at a specific point. – On brown snails there is a mantle at the front, and in that mantle there is a very clear hole. There are breathing holes, and within this are the lungs. When you cut right there, it dies instantly, says Kirkebø. Kirkebø shows with a pair of scissors and points to a snail. Cut here. Photo: Sissel Rikheim / news She says sorry, and cuts. She does that every time. – Always. I don’t have numbers on how many I’ve killed, but every single one has left the world with an apology from me. These slugs were killed, instantly. Photo: Sissel Rikheim / news Boiling water, freezing or shingle If you don’t want to cut the snails, Kirkebø believes there are several good, humane ways to kill the brown snails. – If you have collected a large bucket with many snails, you can boil water and put it on. It must be boiling hot when you put it on. Then they die quickly and efficiently. Or they can fall asleep quietly with the help of freezing. – You have to collect them, put them in a plastic bag, tie a knot and put them in the freezer. After a couple of hours, they are dead, if you put them at minus 20 degrees, says Kirkebø. The most humane thing is to prevent the brown slug from entering your garden in large numbers. Then a damp substrate can be an alternative. – Use shingle if you have problems with a lot of snails, for example if you have a lawn. Remove it, put single on. And if you want a pallet frame, build it up with stone, because stone the snail cannot force so easily. Help from a little hero with a hat on If you’re lucky, you might get help in the egg hunt from a little hero with a hat on. The cellar snail is indeed fond of the white clusters. – They are predatory snails, and eat the eggs of brown snails. Both they and some beetles and various small insects eat brown snail eggs. So they probably take quite a bit, says snail researcher Hatteland. Cellar gloss snail that eats brown snail eggs. Photo: Anne Tafjord Kirkebø There is a dilemma in the hunt for brown snails. Because if you make it difficult for the brown slug, you also make it difficult for nature’s brown slug hunters. – In a way, you want things as tidy as possible to avoid brown slugs, but at the same time there are other natural enemies that thrive in a messy garden. So that’s a balancing act, says Hatteland. Published 29/09/2024, at 20.07
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You should take the eggs they have laid in the fall – news Vestland
