Should I let brown snails in the garden?

Question

I have a small garden and it is full of cactus, wild aloe vera and beautiful pink roses.

I buy vegetables from a organic farmer and some of them have brown garden snails. Instead of throwing them away or kill them, I simply put them in a big pot that contains half a meter of soil and full of grass. I thought that they will die because in my country it does not rain a lot. Surprisingly, I found six in this pot that were alive and I sprayed some water for them.

Given that my garden in cacti-based, is it an issue to let the snails live in my garden? After all, is there a beneficial use of snails in the garden? Perhaps, do they eat some pests or only leaves?

Answer 1

Garden snails eat plants, fungi and algae, depending on the type of snail, so no, I'm afraid they won't be eating any pests... you could provide food for them in the form of lettuce or dandelion leaves, if you really want to encourage them. Snails will eat rose leaves if they can reach them, but that's usually in more humid or wet regions (such as the UK) because its quite difficult for them to move around easily in arid areas.