I will have to admit that snails and slugs cause 98% of the damage to my orchids. I am just devastated when I see a slimy film all over a plant and the new flower spike I have been waiting a full year for chewed right in half. Or when I see my prize Cattleya bloom all slimy and shredded like it had been through a rough storm. There is no mistaking the signs of a snail or slug attack.
Snails and slugs are mollusks belonging to the class of Gastropoda. After insects, they are largest class in the animal kingdom. The name means "stomach foot." Slugs, related to snails, do not have an external shell and do as much damage as their cousins. Gastropoda come in all sizes, shapes and colors. I am so "privileged" to have three types. I have the large brown garden snail (Helix aspersa.) A common small snail with a round shell, which I have not been able to identify..any ideas? If any of you know what this snail is please write me. Last is the dreaded common common field slug (Deroceras reticulatum)
All of these critters prowl by night eating everything in their site and then hide by day digesting their ill gotten gain! The slugs and the tiny snails crawl inside the pot moving through the loose medium making their daytime hideout at the bottom of the pot where you will never see them. They hide so well in the potting medium that you can look and look but never find them until you re-pot. Then you are surprised when you find them lurking in the bottom of the pot!
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