Laurie, slug baits, environmentally safe or otherwise, your choice, works for snails too.

I rarely see a live snail, just the tiniest of empty shells occasionally here.

Few snails in the PNW are pests.

That said, realize that the brown garden snail is a pest. It's been in parts of OR for only a few years but eradication efforts have already been abandoned.

So, we need to know:
-- Where do you live?
-- what do those snails look like? (size; shape; color)

My neighborhood is infested with brown garden snails too. I don't know what it is, some places seem to have them, some don't.

Sluggo and beer traps seem to work well for protecting tender plants, but the best thing I've found seems to be dilligent hand picking. (at least they have the handy shell to grab on to) I toss them into a bucket of soapy water, and let them drown. It's heartless and disgusting, but when they mowed down my dahlias last year, that was war.

Last year I collected hundreds (not an exaggeration)through the spring, but this year they seem to be dwindling a little bit, I only got about 40 this weekend, mostly confined to the ugly laurel hedge.

Sorry, no silver bullets, mostly commiseration. Anyone else have favorite methods?

When I lived in Snohomish, we had hundreds of snails. They were yellowish green, not brown, but I thought they would eat my plants so I sent my 2 year old twins on snail hunts. This consisted of one twin gleefully crunching them underfoot, and the other frantically picking up all she could fit in her pockets to "save" them from her heartless sister. I paid a penny apiece for all snails caught, but the ones that weren't crunched were humanely released into my compost bin...so. This has been no help to you, I'm sure, but nice trip down memory lane for me! I now live in a house that has (so far, knock on wood) no snails...and very few slugs. I just know I'm going to experience an immediate plague of some vicious pest to punish me for bragging.

Heather

I'm familiar with the snails in California that are roundish, the escargot type. Is that what is being called a brown snail? But here I see snails coiled in a flat spiral that are usually a greenish white. Are they harmful to plants, or do they eat dead plant material? I haven't seen them up on a plant.

I live in the Marysville, WA. I kinda of remember that I might have brought home one of these criters on a pot from Walmart a yr or 2 ago. These snails are brown the smaller ones have softer shells than the larger ones.
Heather what a great idea for a snail hunt. I had to smile just thinking of your kids picking them up, smashing them and of course into the pocket. Kids are great for the memories.

It was asked: "I'm familiar with the snails in California that are roundish, the escargot type. Is that what is being called a brown snail? "

Yes, that's them.
Common name: brown garden snail.
Technical name: Helix aspersa.

Please kill all on sight!

I've lived in this house for 16 years this month, and this spring is the first year I've found a snail in my garden (actually, two). So they ARE on the move!

I've lived in California, too, where the snails were as bad a problem as the slugs here - the same stuff will kill them. I used to pick the snails up and toss them in the street. If the cars got them fine, if they made it back to my flower bed, they deserved a good meal.

Daphne in Tacoma

Oh ugh! I remember a neighbor tossing them into the street....after I very nicely asked her to stop tossing them over her fence into my yard! The squashed snails in the street totally grossed me out. It seemed to take them a long time to disintigrate and go away. What is it about snail and slug slime that makes it like really gooey glue?

Heather

I awoke this morning to find a brown snail had destroyed my blue hydrangea (in a tall pot) over night! The best information I have found so far is using iron phosphate to help kill them without causing harm to my pets or the birds. Any other info you have would be appreciated.
Darla CA

Ten years ago snails started appearing in our garden, until then we had lots of slugs but no snails. Three years ago they were really bad, we were infested with them. At night you could even see them crawling across the windows of our house. Think Alfred Hitchcock, YUCK! The Hostas looked like swiss cheese, the little #%$@ chowed down on everything. One morning DH and I picked over 40 snails off our pink Dogwood, and about 20 off the beauty bush. As we have lots of birds around, ponds and pets I started using Safer's slug and snail bait. It seems to be working, at least it's seems to be putting a big dint in the slug and snail population.

A......

I hadn't seen those brown snails until sometime in the last few years. Coincidentally, I didn't have phormium in my garden until a few years ago, either.
I divided a phormium I bought at a very nice local nursery this spring and found snails happily ensconsed between the blades. I couldn't see them until I pulled the plant apart.
I wonder if it's possible the snails are traveling through the area in phormium?

Cathy

I have yet to see a snail here where I live in Gig Harbor - thank goodness, the slugs are bad enough! They are HUGE! I'm constantly fighting them. In Northern CA the snails were very bad in the garden. I hope they don't make it here. (Stepping on one barefoot is not a pleasant experience!)

No one answered my question about the greenish white flat-coiled snails, so I looked at the online key for snails and slugs, below, and they are possibly carnivorous. I would need to find one to key to try to ID it. I've never seen brown snails here. When I lived in San Diego I could go out at night and kill 600 in one night. Ugh. But here I have lots of slugs, so I have the same kinds of damage.

Apparently there are possibly 150 kinds of snails and slugs in Washington, some very tiny. Occasionally I find a banana slug and I understand they are the good guys so I take them over and let them go in the woods. I probably have 3 other kinds of slugs in my garden and I have a kill-on-sight policy. I like to put a board or cardboard near some plants then pick them off when they come there for shelter.

Here is a link that might be useful: snail and slug ID keys