Smaller than your little fingernail, baby snails are very discreet and can do quite a lot of damage without being spotted! We’re seeing quite a few of them at the moment on our autumn crops. It’s hard to spot baby snails until they reach 2 or 3 months old, as they are so tiny, so we’re thinking these little guys were born in the summer, and now they need lots of food to help them grow and strengthen their shells.
Their shells are very soft, to the point that if you try to pick them off the leaves with your fingers, you’ll probably find you crush them by mistake. That might not sit well with you, as these are just little babies after all, but you may equally want to protect your crops. Our solution? To carefully tear off the piece of leaf that the snail is sitting on, and relocate both to a grassy patch at the bottom of the garden where they can continue to grow and be part of the eco-system.