Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello All,

The Brown Garden Snail (Helix aspersa) is a common garden
pest in my area. I was wandering if anyone has used these for
fish food ? Being in a semi urban area i'm concerned about
snail control poisons my neigbors may be using. I've read
that people would "purge" garden snails on a diet of greens or
corn meal for two weeks before consuming to eliminate pesticides.
I'm personally not fond of escargot, but as a free /easy to catch
fish food i'd be willing to purge a few.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had success using them
as fish food.

Best Regards,

Ron Smith

Hi Ron,

The only issue with feeding snails to fish is to ensure that you hold them long enough to determine that they have ingested snail pellets or other bait. If they are still alive after a week they would be OK......so only use live ones.

If you boil them for a brief time, they will exude less mucus.....and you'll be able to get them out of the shell.

Gary

GD, does it take the pellets 1 week to kill them?

i have fed them to my fish, they like. i check them in whole. It works better if you squish them first

Steve

Hello Gary,

I agree with you on the one week waiting period. I'll be looking forward to taking the kids on a snail safari as soon as the sub 0 c weather ends, and post the results. Do you get these or similar garden snails in your part of the world?

Regards,

Ron

Hi Steve,

I suggested a week because anything that's still alive after that time is not likely to have ingested poison bait......and should be safe to use.

If you live in an area that's a bit overgrown, the snails are probably OK. If, however, you are surrounded by nice gardens, I'd be very careful.

The good thing about crushing them and feeding them directly is that the fish (and water) get the calcium from the shell, too.

Ron,

The common brown garden snail (Helix Aspersa) was introduced into Australia during colonisation.

I think these are the same snails that you encounter in your gardens. They are native to Europe.

Gary

I have read that snails and slugs can contain Hep A, B or C or something and that you shouldn't feed them to your chooks. I've never paid too much attention to this opinion, but am interested in what people think.

how do you STOP chooks from eating them if they are ranging the yard? Our chooks are much like the fish and will eat anything that fits in their mouths (grasshoppers, worms, lizards, rodents, weeds...)

Hi VB,

I have to admit that I've never seen that warning......and I have known people to purge common garden snails then cook and eat them. In fact, I've known young children to eat them without the purging and cooking.

I agree with Jaymie......it's difficult to control what chooks eat (or anything else that they do).

Gary

I agree with this also. No matter how hard I tried to stop them - mine kept doing these really strange poos. They were white and kinda hard - but when you did break them they were all wet inside with clear stuff and yellow stuff

On a serious note, I've never seen brown snails in our area, too dry I think. But, we have large land snails with really heavy shells. Don't often see the snail, just the shells

Hep B / C? Damned druggie needle sharing fornicating snails.............

Reets has a "thing" about snails, and gets quite upset with me when i collect them from mums place after a good rain! Mum & Dad have a long flight of steps leading to their front door, which are often coverin in snails after a good rain.........last time i got a zip lock bag full and popped them in the freezer for fishy treats

Re: chooks eating snails, there is a parasitic worm that chooks can get from eating the snails.

Interestingly, ducks are not effected by the parasite.

If your chooks do eat snails, don't fret. Occasional feeds of Garlic helps treat any parasites they have.

That's what I love about this forum.... you laways pick up these sort of really helpful hints and tips....

Thanks, you crazy old chock... didn't know that one

Hey P.Chook
What would you do if your chooks had lice or mites?
Can either of these live in the soil once the chooks are gone?
I think my old chooks could have had something, so they are no longer chooks. I was going to purge the area for a few weeks before getting some new ones. By purge, I mean just leave it empty for a few weeks.

Is there something I could spray the coop with to kill any naughty little parasites?

Just add crushed garlic to their waterevery couple of weeks Rupe! They have no choice but to get their garlic dose then!