During lunch yesterday I picked up a gardening magazine belonging to one of
my colleagues, and as I flipped through it I came upon a large full color
picture of a snail.  I figured the attached article was about controlling
snails that feed on garden plants.  And so it was - only it wasn't exactly
an article, it was an advertisement - and the pictured snail was not one of
the species that need to be controlled.  Rather, it was a carnivorous snail
that was being offered for sale as a means of controlling Helix and other
molluscan garden pests.  I visited their web site (www.biopest.com).  The
snail they are selling is Rumina decollata, which they list as "decollate
predatory snail".  Is this a reasonable approach to controlling snails in
your garden?  Or could the importation of such a species result in mass
destruction of the local molluscan fauna?
Paul M.