What all pet owners and parents should know about snail bait
Last week Medipet (a medical insurance company for pets) shared a heart-breaking post by a woman called Jo-Ellen Hannaway.
Jo-Ellen related how she saw some snail and slug poison at a hardware store two years ago and since she had some snail problems in her garden bought two packets. “Our gardener at the time put it under the braai with our pool chemicals. Never again did I think of it,” she wrote.
The product in question consists of those colourful (usually blue) pellets that people throw around plants to kill snails. According to the company that makes the product, it's active ingredient is metaldehyde, “which causes snails and slugs to produce excess mucus…which depletes their energy reserves and weakens them. Cell membranes are damaged and mucus cells are irreversibly destroyed, resulting in the desiccation and death of snails and slugs. They cannot recover by taking in moisture after this process has taken place.”
In other words, when they eat the pellets the snails die a very unpleasant death.
As can anything else that eats it… which is what happened to Jo-Ellen’s five dogs.
While their owners were out, their four-month-old Alsatian puppy’s sharp nose led him to the closed packet of the snail poison. CCTV camera footage revealed that he tore open the packet and between the five dogs, they ate the content. When the Hannaways arrived home, the bodies of their five dogs were strewn over the lawn and floating dead in the swimming pool.
“From 4 pm to 8 pm our babies suffered a terrible death, the recording of it was too unbearable to watch,” wrote Jo-Ellen.
The company concerned would, of course, point to the warning on the packaging that its product is toxic – something Jo-Ellen recognizes. “But”, she wrote, “We hadn’t read it yet and it hadn’t been used and not everyone will read the small print.”
“Surely, snail and slug baits should be in the same tamper-proof packaging used for toxic household cleaners and medicine?”
The shocking thing is that these pellets are flavoured with molasses, apple and bran to attract the snails. Of course, dogs, cats, tortoises and livestock find those smells equally attractive which is the reason why veterinarians treat so many animals from accidental metaldehyde poisoning. In a recent article by veterinarian Dr. Shea Cox, Cox wrote that during the spring and summer, she treats animals suffering from snail bait poisoning on a weekly basis.
Equally disturbing is the fact that these pellets resemble candy and because they taste nice, they are also attractive to small children. If a small packet can kill five dogs, imagine what a tiny handful or even a few pellets could do to a child?
Human poisoning is less common, but when it happens it creates havoc in the body. According to a scientific article I read, metaldehyde is a neurotoxin and exposure results in vomiting, irregular heartbeats, tremors, seizures and death. There is no antidote for this highly toxic material, so all that doctors (and vets) can do is to treat the symptoms and hope for the best.
The question Jo-Ellen rightly asks is how it can be legal to sell something this toxic over the counter in hardware stores without any requirement to sign for it whilst the dangers are explained? After all, if a form of medication was this dangerous you would need a prescription and/or get a warning from the pharmacist before being able to buy it.
Furthermore, it seems that the companies who sell these products should put in big (and I mean HUGE) red print on the packaging that these products are highly toxic to pets and humans and could lead to death.
It also seems insane that they sell these products in plastic packaging or boxes that can easily be opened by pets and children. Surely, snail and slug baits should be in the same tamper-proof packaging used for toxic household cleaners and medicine?
Ultimately, people need to think very carefully before they buy any of these types of products. There are a number of natural methods to get rid of pests and I, for one, use zero chemical fertilizers and pesticides in my garden. In the case of snails, you can plant flora that snails hate. Ferns, hydrangeas, euphorbias, lavender, rosemary and geraniums, for example, are all unappetising to snails.
If you want the soft leafy plants that slugs dig, you can do many other things to get rid of them. If catch and release is not your thing, then try putting coffee grounds around the plants. (Coffee shops are just too happy to get rid of the grinds).
You can also surround the plants with eggshells or sand. Apparently, putting the rind of grapefruits next to the plants will attract the snails and other insects overnight, so if you are not squeamish you can then find them a different home in the morning.
Snails also share our nation’s love for beer. So if you want to kill the snails, you can set up a beer trap.
You would have to sacrifice some of those Castle Lagers in the fridge and the snails will die, but at least it won’t kill your pets.
If none of these work, you could buy Eco snail and slug traps.
Jo-Ellen’s post is the kind of story any animal lover never wants to read. It seems to me that there are a number of lessons to be learnt from her tragedy:
First, there is absolutely no reason for us as consumers to buy products that are highly toxic to animals and humans and that are also bad for the environment. We should use natural alternatives.
Second, companies who make these products should take responsibility for how they label and package these toxins. Ultimately, they should stop producing them.
Third, the state should review regulations about the sale and packaging of these products to make them much more strict.
Tinkerbell (Jack Russell, 9 years), Paris (Alsatian, 8 years), Duke (Alsatian, 4 months), Mr. Biggles (Pomeranian, 5 years) and Angel (Pomeranian, 4 years) died a slow and painful death. Let their deaths not be in vain.