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Originally Posted by Brisie  I have lots of information about trapping garden slugs and snails, but having done so I want to feed them to birds and hedgehogs etc. I am now looking for ideas or solutions for suitable feeding arrangements - can anyone help? |
Unless you are growing some very susceptible plants, the only species of snail you need to be concerned about is the Common Snail, though most slug species can be a problem.
The difficulty with 'feeding' is others have pointed out is matching the size and number of predator species to the size and volume of prey species. If you think in terms of wildebeast (millions) matched to lions (hundreds) you get some sort of idea how many molluscs there are to birds, hedgehogs etc. in Britain.
Release of your trapped 'pests' in a suitable 'wild' area is the best way to make them available to a range of predators - which may include foxes, badgers, crows and beetles.
If you make sure that the smaller species of snail and some less than full grown slugs have spaces in your garden, then you will still have a potential food source for predators to be attracted to your garden.
If you don't have access to somewhere where you can release the molluscs you've trapped and you don't want to kill them, stick them in a yoghurt pot and put them out with the rubbish for transport to the local landfill where the gulls etc may recycle them.
CM