snails question

[VeganD]

Hello

I’m sure we all must have stood on a snail at some point

Well I have and anytime i do i feel bad about it but its hard not to there are so many a lot more so when it’s raining

A few weeks back i was taking some stuff that was left in my yard to the tip and most of it was covered in snails i new if i took it to the tip like that and put it in the skip with all them snails on they would die

So i spent over an hour removing all of them once i removed them i put them back in the yard

The question i have is once a snails shell breaks can it grow a new one?

I did break one picking it up because the baby snails are so fragile but with the shell broken i didn’t know what to do because i believe when that’s gone they have no protection from predators



PS i hear in France they eat so many of them they will soon be extinct so now they are moving onto garden snails

[thevegantwins]

We don't have snails around here but I remember seeing loads of them in the UK. I'm not sure about their shell. I bet Bowwowmeow will know though. She knows things like that. :professor:

I think it is highly admirable of you to try to rescue all those that you did. Unfortunately, with any rescue operation, some don't survive. :(

[paul]

Wow last night i went to a veggie/vegan group meeting for the first time, and there was a person i hadnt seen for a long time who lives the other end of the country, and he was telling me about someone i knew many years ago has found that if the shell is only broken the a certain percentage then the shell can recover,im going to email him and find out more.

[Bowwowmeow]

We had to "play" with snails in a biology class I had to take in college, and the instructor told us to be very careful with them, since cracking their shells would kill them, so I'm not sure a cracked shell will heal, especially on young snails, but maybe paul's friend will know differently. :crossfingers:

[Gliondrach]

Perhaps being young, the youngster's shell is less rigid and might be better able to heal - as they are still growing.

[Phoenix]

Snails - young and old - are remarkably resilient little creatures!

My backyard is awash in snails :snail: many of them rescued from the road and other dangerous places! I have seen them recover from some fairly severe shell-fractures! Their shells mend very slowly but they quite often do heal.

There are a few snails gliding around the backyard now whose shells show the scars of past injuries, yet they are healthy! :) :agree:

[Fauxmage]

Yours are marsupial snails, though, Phoenix, so maybe they are tougher. :whistle:

[soozthecat]

We don't have snails around here

Wow Ive suddenly realised how sad a life without snails would be!!

[Phoenix]

Yours are marsupial snails, though, Phoenix, so maybe they are tougher. :whistle:
They are very odd :updn: They like to eat the garlic we planted to keep them out of the veggie patch (such as it is). :rolleyes:

Faux, I wish I could show you the mental picture I now have of "marsupial snails". :rofl:

[VeganD]

We can only try our best it took me so long to pick everyone i could find before that stuff was on its way to the dump so i done my best and saved what i could

Like i said i have stood on them before in the dark when it’s been raining which cannot be helped and felt so bad so at this point i have 2 choices leave it in pain or kill it

I go back and stand on it which is not easy to do but often enough i get something else to use because i cannot stand standing on it to put it out of its pain

Taking into account what you said Phoenix but i think it’s fair to say that once it’s been stood on that’s the end of it and they will not recover from a completely broken shell

But yes the ones where you pick them up and maybe theres a small crack in the shell they might have a chance