Dear all,

So is there a continent these dreadful creatures haven't made it to? Whilst
they probably cause little trouble in their native Europe, here the
populations of Helix aspersa have reached very high levels, and they are
the main reason you can't have a vegetable garden without spreading a
fortune in snail pellets. They eat holes in newspapers and mail left in
letterboxes overnight. They eat the adhesive labels off any plastic bottles
they can get to (I've had to throw out several bottles of 'something' of
the pesticide/paint thinnner type because the snails had completely eaten
the labels, and I could no longer see what was in the bottles).

The following game always does well at kid's birthday parties:
Collect a buckful of snails fromt he garden. Give each child a snail and
stick a sticker on the shell with the child's name, or a number of
something else. Draw two circles on a concrete surface, a small one,
surrounded by one large one. Put snails back in bucket. Tip the contents of
the bucket inside the small circle. The snail that first makes it to the
outer circle wins.

As for disposing of the things, this has been discussed before, but I like
the mean and cruel type methods, especially after the subject has just
eaten the flower in one of my prize-winning orchids...

Happy snailing

Patty
Dr. Patty Jansen

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