Dear Jeff, There was an outfit in San Diego that would sell Helix aspersa (one of the edible land snails) for about 25 cents each back in the mid 1980s. I don't know who they were. Another place you might inquire is Carolina Biological Supply. Depending on where you live, and what size of land snail you want, you might be able to collect them from your area. That would be preferable: see below. I want to warn about transporting land snails around the country (and world). Terrible environmental and agricultural problems have resulted from both accidental and intentional introductions of land snails from one part of the world to another. I understand that the Australian wheat crop has been destroyed by an introduced snail that climbs the wheat stalk and then gums up the harvesters, so the wheat can't be harvested (I understand that Australia has become a net importer of wheat, but only a few years ago it was a net exporter). A carnivorous land snail introduced to Pacific Islands to control the Giant African snail (also introduced) has failed to control the giant African snail, but instead, the carnivorous snail finds the endemic (living only there) snails to be tasty, and at least half a dozen extinctions (and the number is climbing) are directly attributable to the carnivorous snail. The horror stories could go on. Because of the potential agricultural and environmental problems associated with introduced land snails, there are governmental regulations regarding their transport across both state and international boundaries. Check with your local government before you have snails shipped to you. If you do obtain snails that don't live in your local area, you must destroy the snails when you are finished with your project. You may NOT release them to the wild. I think the best solution to obtaining land snails for a class project is to have the students help collect the land snails from the local area, and then to do the project on those snails. Please contact me if you would like advice about where you might find snails locally. I love land snails and I want to encourage others to study land snails. I also want to keep our environment as healthy as possible. Sincerely, -Tim- Timothy A. Pearce, Ph.D., Curator of Mollusks Delaware Museum of Natural History Box 3937, 4840 Kennett Pike 302-658-9111 x319 Wilmington, DE 19807-0937, USA [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Travis Payne [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, 07 January, 1999 18:22 Subject: looking for landsnails... ...snip... Greetings; I am an elementary school teacher, looking for a small supply of land snails. Our science curriculum contains a unit about land snails. Are you aware of any place we might obtain a small amount (15-25) snails? I look forward to hearing from you. Please respond to the email address below: Jeff Anson; [log in to unmask]