Common Garden Snails Eat Mail; Copper Tape Blocks Them — SkimNews
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- Simon Mustoe said snails ate his letter from Sir David Attenborough, echoing a BBC report that a Royal Mail postbox in Northumberland was closed because snails were “munching the mail.”
- John Stanisic said letters are processed vegetable matter; during a two-day photoshoot for Catalyst, snails he kept in a Chinese takeaway container escaped overnight and ate the front page of his running sheet.
- Australia has about 2,500 native snail species, including the rosy wolf snail, red triangle slug and leopard slug; Isabel Hyman says these invertebrates are important in the food web because mammals and birds need flourishing ecosystems.
- Common garden snails, introduced from Europe 120 years ago, are the likely letter-munching culprits, seeking refuge in humid letterboxes where paper supplies an additional food source.
- Copper tape creates an uncomfortable electric charge when snail mucus contacts the metal; Isabel Hyman recommends pairing it with a sharp angle, while sand, diatomaceous earth, coffee grinds and crushed eggshells are also suggested.
- Snail baits are effective but kill native snails and should not be used beside undisturbed habitat; iron products also kill native snails, while Simon Mustoe says poisons are driving collapsing urban blue tongue populations and pellets can kill pets, including a French bulldog that chewed a packet.
Why it matters: Mailbox owners gain a practical nonchemical barrier in copper tape, sand or other deterrents, but bait and iron products kill native snails in Australia, home to roughly 2,500 native species. Poison use also endangers blue tongue lizards and pets, making the immediate trade-off protection of mail versus protection of local invertebrates.
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