David Grays Snail Pellets, and how to use them safely

March 28, 2025

You put a punnet of lettuce seedlings in on a Saturday, and by Monday there's bare stem and a silver trail across the soil, and that's usually the point at which somebody comes in asking about snail pellets. David Grays Snail Pellets are the common answer, so here's what's in them and how to use them without creating a different problem.

Read the active ingredient before you read anything else

There are two families of snail pellet on the shelf and they are not the same thing at all. One family uses metaldehyde, which is what's in the David Grays pellets, and it's effective and it has been around for decades. The other family uses an iron based active instead. The reason to know which one you've picked up is dogs, because metaldehyde poisoning in a dog is a genuine emergency and dogs will eat pellets off a garden bed. A pet deterrent is added to the pellets, and that is a deterrent rather than a guarantee.

So turn the pack over and read the active before you buy, and if you've got a dog that eats anything it finds, have a proper think about which family you want in the garden. Both sit on the same shelf here and it's a 2 minute conversation at the counter.

How to scatter them

Scatter thinly and evenly around the plants you're protecting. Think of it as seasoning rather than mulching, because a heap of pellets is both a waste and a hazard.
Put them where the snails travel rather than on the plant itself. Along the edge of a bed, around the base of a pot and near anything damp and shaded is where they come from.
Go out in the evening. Snails and slugs feed at night and in the damp, so pellets put down late in the day meet them at the right time.
The rate is on the pack and it's genuinely small. More pellets do not kill more snails, they just put more of the stuff in your garden.
Keep them away from anywhere a child, a dog or a chook can get at them, and pick up anything that's gone soggy and obvious rather than leaving it lying there.

The things that work without any pellets at all

Snails want damp and shade, so the way you garden changes how many you have to deal with. Water in the morning rather than at dusk, because a bed that's wet all night is the ideal place to be a snail. Pull mulch back a little from the stems of young seedlings, since a thick damp mulch right up against a plant is a snail hotel with room service. And raise your seedlings in punnets until they're big enough to shrug off a bit of damage, because a snail can eat a whole seedling overnight and can barely dent an established plant.

Beer traps and copper tape both have their fans. A beer trap does catch them and it needs emptying regularly or it becomes its own unpleasant job. Copper tape works well around a pot and is not much use around a whole bed. Crushed eggshells get recommended endlessly and do very little once they've had a bit of rain on them, so do not build your whole defence on that one.

Shop related products

Brunnings Seed Raising Mix 5L. For raising seedlings in punnets up off the ground, which is the cheapest snail defence there is.
Easy Wetta Garden Mulch 50L. A garden mulch, and worth keeping pulled back from young stems.
Neutrog Whoflungdung Mulch 20kg. A finer mulch that breaks down into the soil rather than sitting wet against plants.

Did you know the snail pellets themselves are in the shop rather than on the website, and we carry both the metaldehyde pellets and an iron based alternative, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 and tell us whether there's a dog in the picture. We've also got a snail and slug barrier and a snail trap on the shelf for anyone who would rather not put pellets down at all.

The rest of the pest range sits in our garden centre, and if you're not certain what's eating your seedlings, bring in a leaf and we'll have a look, because caterpillars and earwigs get blamed on snails constantly.

More on garden pests

I am firmly in the camp that thinks going out at night with a torch counts as a hobby, so I'm probably not the person to ask for the low effort answer.

Candeece