Aspersa and citrus bark.

[copigeon]

I had to move my lemon tree into the garden last year, as it became too big for my greenhouse space and I needed room for my large vivs... covered it over the winter, but it didnt fair well and presumed it dead. Something odd, was the way the bark was all... bare in places, chewed off as if by some rodent.
Found some shoots on it the other day... throught great it'll recover.. 2 days later its bare again and still losing bark.

Was clearing up around the greenhouse ready for renovations to start (Im turning half of it into a shed) and I found this....

Click to view really big.


Ive popped some close ups up in a table, click to view bigger.

Does anyone know, why citrus bark is so appealing? Or citrus in general?
Im thinking about offering some to the zachrysia and smaller snail species.

In the meantime does anyone have any good suggestions for stopping this mass chow down on my lemon tree? I dont want to use slug pellats but if they keep this up I'll have to.

[Val]

I put branches of apple tree in my lignus tank and the lignus eat the bark as well., don't know why it is so appealing. Please don't use slug pellets though.

Val

[Moracai]

My Lignus are eating the bark on the lemon trees in their tank.
Hmmm
must be something about bark from a citrus.

[copigeon]

Aye but... surely bark is less... appealing? nutricious? than leaves or stems?
Obviously not... but why?

Val that tree cant die if it surived the winter, it was supposed to be feeding some cats next year. If I have to use pellats I will, will try beer traps etc first maybe. Either way they need to keep off my tree.

[coyote]

I've read that copper strips placed around the bark will stop snails from climbing any further up the tree. It won't kill them or harm them, it just prevents them from going any farther. They'll all pile up right below the copper, unable to go any higher but not turning around to leave either. You can pick them off manually at that point, and re-home them somewhere else.

In my snail research on the web, I've seen this copper method mentioned several times on agricultural-related websites as a method for citrus orchard owners to protect their crop from being ravaged by snails.

My bf mentioned that copper foil can be found in art supply stores; it's also possible that garden supply stores will have it as well (and it might actually be cheaper in the latter).

[copigeon]

Ah of course copper cheers coyote.
Copper is actually poisonous to slugs and snails (and water snails much to my annoyance.) Hence the lack of desire to cross it. I have some copper tape lying around.

(hrm, just looked on ebay: "The copper tape gives any slug a low voltage charge generated by the slug itself trying to travel over the surface. The slug will do an about face and will return from where it came." always thought it was due to its make up vs snail/slug body... as with poison to aquartics, maybe not.)

Cheers good suggestion.

[coyote]

Best of luck with your lemon tree.