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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mid-May Snail Patrol























A rainy morning in May is not a common thing in these parts, but here I was at 9 am trolling the garden for snails in a light drizzle. Leaves of all sorts of plants were studded with water droplets, the phlomis, the eriogonum, the abutilon to name a few. In such conditions I would expect to find snails anywhere on the plants, or everywhere, especially the recently planted rudbeckia. But most of the snails I saw were on spiny or soft succulent plants: sedum, aloe, between the spines of a cactus. Except in the case of the cactus, this may be because under the succulents is a relatively moist place to hide during our normally dry weather, and this is where most of the snails started when the rain began. How far does a snail travel in a night's foraging?








I throw the snails I pick into the street because I'm too much of a weenie to crush them, preferring to let the crows have their way with the succulent little molluscan tidbits.

1 comment:

Christine said...

I must confess, I crush them between my (gloved) fingers. I've even taken to stepping on them in other people's gardens- it's become a nervous tic!
I love that photo of the snail between the spines. Reminds me of one of those motivational posters with some encouraging "hang in there" type saying.