Snail Mail

October 15, 2008 8:19 PM

Snails keep getting into my letterbox and nibbling on my mail! But despite this being a BIG annoyance, I don't want to kill them... just deter them from going in there. Any suggestions?

My letterbox is basically a brick letter box with a little slot in the front so that the Postie can stick the mail in there. The back is a metal door (kind of like a flap) so obviously the snails are getting in through the front.

And this isn't just one or two snails. It's a lot of them. Last night it pissed down rain here and my partner and I got home to find at least 5 snails inside the box eating our mail with another 10 slowly sliding their way on up to join the feast. Quite a bit of snail poo was sitting alongside my mail as well. This was the final straw. It's all out war now!

EXCEPT... I don't want to kill them (it's a peaceful kind of all out war). I don't even want to hurt them if it can be avoided. This means that the obvious answer of snail bait (which is bad for other animals I do want hanging round, like birds etc) or salt isn't an option. Also, the Postie needs to get the mail into the box somehow so something which blocks the slot is out of the question. So I need other deterrents that will stop snails from wanting to go in there. Perhaps some kind of organic brew? A homemade concoction that's been passed down through your family? Any suggestions?

posted by Effigy2000 to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

Vaseline smeared around entrance.

Please ignore the double entendre too. :)
posted by Mephisto at 8:29 PM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well, if the snails can't get in through the metal door on the back, why not a metal door on the front?
posted by papayaninja at 8:31 PM on October 15, 2008

Pour salt on the counter. Unroll a nice long piece of double-sided tape and stick one side in the salt. Use remaining sticky side to attach to your letterbox. Repeat until entrance to letterbox is surrounded by salty tape. You can do this far enough away that the mail carrier won't get your mail stuck to the tape, you should just need a solid border.

(Please note, I've never actually tried this, but common wisdom is that snails die when they touch salt and will therefore not cross a line of it.)
posted by vytae at 8:41 PM on October 15, 2008

Best answer: Copper foil or copper tape. It works very well as a snail and slug barrier and it can be applied in a way that makes it decorative.
posted by X4ster at 8:41 PM on October 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

Can you put some copper tape around the slot?
posted by ambrosia at 8:41 PM on October 15, 2008

There's a kind of plant that grows in swampy water or alongside slow moving streams which contains a lot of powdered quartz. (I think the evolutionary purpose is to make it damage the teeth of browsers, so they stop eating the stuff.) Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the thing, but what I do know is that when they're dry, and laying on the ground, slugs won't crawl over them.

Does this ring a bell for anyone else?
posted by Class Goat at 8:42 PM on October 15, 2008

OK, I just saw that you said no salt. But my method won't kill the snails, because they won't be willing to touch the salt. So hopefully I'm still following the spirit of your rules, if not the letter.
posted by vytae at 8:42 PM on October 15, 2008

Snails love beer. Put a shallow dish of beer near the box, and maybe they'll be more attracted to that than your mail?
posted by phunniemee at 8:44 PM on October 15, 2008

Thirding copper, but I like the idea of a tiny beer shrine.
posted by rokusan at 8:58 PM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Beer and salt will result in snail-o-cide, which the OP is specifically avoiding.

Copper doesn't kill them, it just repels them. They don't like to cross it.

Copper tape is the way to go.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:44 PM on October 15, 2008

A shallow dish of beer is an attraction. A cup of beer is a suicide booth. It's totally possible not to kill the guys.
posted by phunniemee at 9:52 PM on October 15, 2008

Yes beer will off the snails (quite effectively I might add). If copper doesn't work I'd suggest a flap over the letter slot that is too heavy for snails to lift. Ours has one, perhaps this is why?

btw, thank you very much for the laugh, I have never even heard of snails doing such a thing but it is very entertaining to imagine.
posted by fshgrl at 10:57 PM on October 15, 2008

crushed shells of some kind make a surface that's difficult for snails to go over. Surround your mailbox base with this. Or 2. Make a flap that moves out of the way when the postie puts the envelope in, same some plastic tablecloth doublesided-taped to the inside above the slot? (this won't work if we have the same postie who likes to leave part of the letter hanging out as a kind of advertisement).
posted by b33j at 2:06 AM on October 16, 2008

Response by poster: I'm going to try out this copper tape idea... further reading on the net (and the consensus in this thread) all seems to suggest it's the best solution. Thanks for your help all! Tomorrow will be the snails last supper!
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:12 AM on October 16, 2008

doesn't work under rainy conditions, but i use powdered borax laundry soap to keep slugs away from the food i put outside for the unfortunate kitty who lives under my house. it *might* kill them if they crawl in it, but the idea is to deter them. and i figure that if they're dumb enough to crawl through it, survival of the fittest kicks in.
and thanks for the copper tape, idea, x4ster & ambrosia. i'd never heard of such a thing.
posted by msconduct at 9:24 AM on October 16, 2008

Class Goat, the plant you are thinking of is horsetail (Equisetum spp.).
posted by buttercup at 9:44 AM on October 16, 2008

I made a lovely shim-copper fence around a herb patch once.

Didn't do squat. Got up in the middle of the night with a torch and there were wall climbers all over it.

I'd go the spring-loaded flap inside the slot option. Posties can push a lot harder than snails.
posted by flabdablet at 4:01 PM on October 16, 2008