Peter Froehlich wrote:
>
> Art,
> Ants may work in other countries and fire ants may work in Florida but up
> here in Maine you better figure out some way of holding them down so a 30 lb
> racoon does not haul them off as soon as the start to smell a little ripe.
> Beth
 
 
Beth,
 
I reported on exactly that experience a year ago.  I had collected a
number of live Terebras, Bursas and Cymatiums in Hawaii- removed most of
the soft parts and had left the rest to rot out  a bit in a bucket in
our back yard.  We noticed a pair of big racoons in the yard most of
evening and discovered all of the shells gone the next morning. And this
was in Southern California!!
 
As a footnote, one of the Terebras turned up this summer as I was
working on a rather weedy part of the garden.  I keep hoping to run into
a Cymatium among the grapevines.........
 
Phil