Can snail pellets be safely used in a vegetable garden? If not, any safer alternatives?

Question

Is it safe to use snail pellets in a vegetable garden bed or will these slowly leach into the soil? Is there a safer alternative that will keep snails out, but won't be absorbed by the vegetables?

Answer 1

I have tried many different things succesfully. Try putting a container dug into the soil. Fill this with beer and the snails will go to the beer and they will drown. This also works for slugs. Another way is to sprinkle ashes from the fireplace or campfire around your plants. The ashes will kill the snail. Salt is another way to kill them. Sprinkle on the outside of the garden and it will do the same thing as the ashes. Where we garden in Jamaica the snails will go up into the trees at night so we cover the ground around the tree with ashes and soon we did not see any snails in the trees.