Snails die a miserable death due to the heat and drought.
The animals - although sometimes annoying for gardeners - are very useful.
Munich - They love salads and tender young plants and were therefore a thorn in the side of many a hobby gardener in the spring: slugs.
Now in the summer you hardly see them.
The reason for this is also bad for snails.
Summer weather kills snails - "Actually gone"
Beautiful weather for weeks and hardly a drop of rain - this weather also has an advantage for bed owners and allotment gardeners: it puts an end to the voracious slugs.
"With the drought and heat, they have actually disappeared," reported Angelika Nelson from the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV).
However, all other snail species do not tolerate the summer weather well either - and even the unpopular slugs are quite useful in the garden.
First of all, as in the previous year, there were a striking number of snails in Bavaria.
"It was relatively humid in the spring, and since snails love wet weather, there were very, very many snails," says Nelson.
"If you grew lettuce, you didn't actually have a chance to eat it because the snails got on it immediately."
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Hot summer weather kills snails - "They often dry up on the way"
In the past few weeks, however, many snails have died a miserable death.
"They often dry up on the way because they can no longer get into a cool hiding place," says the LBV expert.
However, this does not affect the prospects for the next gardening season.
"They've probably all already laid their eggs, so the next generation is already on the way for next year."
Although snails lay their eggs in different places depending on the species, they generally prefer moist, cool and dark places where the eggs are also protected from voracious birds.
In order to protect their lettuce from being eroded next spring, gardeners can now remove the clutches or dry them out.
But Nelson urgently warns against this, because such actions automatically catch the eggs of snails and highly desirable snail species.
10 facts about snails
Bavaria: snail death - "We need them with us"
"We need them with us, even the slugs that eat our lettuce," explained Nelson.
"The slugs are good scavengers, they eat carrion and excrement and thus also destroy bacteria." Other snails, such as Roman snails, also eat the clutches of slugs.
"It's all a balance." For the same reason, never use slug pellets, Nelson warned.
"Because then you catch everything again and destroy the whole balance."
(kam/dpa)
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