Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just spent half an hour getting bitten by darn mozzies trying to find the pests savaging the tiny seedlings in the GBs.
I’m getting rid off the caterpillars during the day but they were not the culprits.

Found just one slug bud heaps of small snails doing the damage.
Hidden in the gravel during the day.
The GBs are infested with them. Must be in the hundreds.
The same snails that blocked my filters about 2 years ago.

Now to find out how to get rid of them without poisoning the fish.
Don’t fancy spending whole nights there with a torch picking them off.
They aren’t easy to spot between the scoria.

Good Luck Steve...I can't think of anything other than doing it by hand....will dipel worh with snails ?

what about beerin a shallow dish in the gb overnight? gets rid of slugs really well

Ducks love snails. I know may not be the best answer, but we have a flock of free-range chickens for bug control on our property.

Dunno if you can put salt out anywhere in plates or lids, but that'll dry them out in a hurry.

+1 on the beer in shallow dish or plate. Damn shame to waste good beer, but if it does the trick, buy some cheap beer!

Yeah that stuff is only good for giving to snails anyway

Make the standpipe higher than the media and run the gb's flooded for half an hr or so. You will find they will try to make it to higher ground. If you remove the outer guard from around the standpipe they can be sucked into the FT if the water is moving fast enough. Best time to pick them off when they are on the surface of the media. I did one GB for slugs and the fish loved it.

Thanks for the advice, been baby siting the whole day (again), but tonight did pick some more of the snails
and thrown them into a tin with some water to see if they are water snails or terrestrial.
They are all the same size, 4 to 5 mm. Seems to be the terrestial, good.

Tomorrow will hook up high the drain end of the siphon loop on one GB and turn on the auxiliary pump to test it Dufflight,
but may have to put an elbow into the overflow inlet to raise the level.
Hope it will work.

Otherwise will have to sacrifice some beer.

Have flooded all 6 GBs of one FT and spent the whole morning just picking off those pesky snails.
Lots of tiny ones from about 1.5 mm that I didn’t notice before.
These snails didn’t like having wet feet and were hurrying up but when disturbed would fall down to the bottom.

I imagine that there’s still plenty left behind.
Will have to try another, less tedious method.
And I have another two rows of GBs to worry about.

Had a similar problem with slugs S&S... and had to do the same thing...

PITA... but it does eventually work....

I always toss some snailfeed on the ground so didn’t have much problem with them.
They finish belly up with a mighty bellyache.

if i remember rightly OBO had some success with spreading a bit of lime over the gb media, might have been for slugs but i would have imagined that would work for snails also ?

never had to test it myself the slaters are my biggest problem

Cheers
pete

Thanks for that Delgrade, had some dolomite left so it will also help with my PH problem.
That spare flour sieve did come handy.
Hope the fish will survive it.

Looks very bare with the only some toms hanging on and seedlings ravaged by the snails.
Only the small green unit looks better.

Was checking on the snails over last few nights but very few shoved up.
Worked a treat that dolomite . How does it works, does it dehydrate them?

But water in the FTs got quite turbid so did about half tank water change in one IBC and the Tub.
Also added a half measure “mine” (1/2 cup) seasol to the IBC.
Will do the second IBC tomorrow morning.

Fish not as frenzied on feeding time but still feeding well and with bare GBs I will have to keep both eyes on the water.

Also with the Vic Meet approaching fast I may have to pop in the Sunday market for an armful of plastic flowers to stick into those GBs.
Never seen there any plastic vegies .

I am sure it will look fine by then Steve Only 7 more sleeps