1. Question: “Why are there
so (insert expletive) many of them??!!” Answer: Many snails are hermaphroditic,
so when two snails mate both snails can lay eggs. Snails lay about 60
eggs at a time and can do so up to six times a year. A particularly fertile
snail couple could produce 720 baby slimers a year.
2. Snails have teeth. They
have hundreds, sometimes thousands, of tiny teeth set in a ribbon-like
structure called a radula. On a quiet night, if you listen very closely, you
can hear the tiny grinding sound.
3. Snails keep the same
shell all of their lives. A snail hatches from its egg with a small, weak
shell. The newborn eats its egg and the calcium helps harden the shell. The
shell grows with the snail until it reaches full adulthood.
4. Some people use snail
slime as a face cream. Yes they do.
5. Snails can shut the
front door. The bottom of a snail’s body is called a foot. Some species develop
a tough part of the foot called an operculum. When the soft parts of the
snail’s body are retracted into the shell, the snail seals itself in with the
operculum. The operculum grows to fit the size and shape of the shell’s
opening.
6. Once a snail colony
makes your garden home, there is little you can do about it. Well, there’s
plenty you can do about it but not much that works. Some popular methods of
trying are beer traps, copper barriers, eggshells, night squashing or
relocating raids, and chemicals. When all else fails, you can grow plants snails
don’t like to eat. Snails, unfortunately, cannot be trained to eat only weeds.
7. Can’t beat ‘em? Eat ‘em! Escargo, anyone?
For more on these
swirl-backed slime trailers, visit www.snail-world.com
and good luck if you are battling them in your garden.
