Where the heck do these snails come from?

[flaringshutter]

As long as you're not overfeeding or letting leftover food sit around for very long, the snails shouldn't get out of hand.
As far as the pleco, if the neck of your bottle is narrow enough, he won't be able to fit inside. You can use an empty glass or plastic soda bottle.
The freezing is very important. Even though it seems unlikely, if you just toss the snail in the dumpster there is a chance it could get into local waterways and cause an infestation. Although pond snails can't survive on land for long at all, if even one gets into a gutter or drainage ditch, it can multiply, hitch a ride on trash to the next ditch, lake, stream... Think about the quagga mussel problem in the US right now - you don't want to cause yet another catastrophe like that. So freezing is an easy way to prevent that.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Ah, I understand now. Didnt really think of that.

 

[N.C.]

i had the same problem in my 55gal community tank, they came in with some java moss i had bought. i personaly dont like using chemicals in my tanks. so i did a little research, i found out that rope fish or reed fish whatever you like to call them love to eat snails, so i bought just one and within one month all snails were gone..

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Yeah, Ive heard of Loaches doing and excellent job on getting rid of snails. I even know some other fish like Cichlids etc, will eat snails, but only if they are big enough and they can see them. They will suck them right out of their shells.