Monday 13 April 2009

Snail Cluster Raises Questions



I tend to treat snails as equals and don't have the killer instinct that other gardeners sometimes have. I know someone nearby who throws any snails she finds over the wall and out of her garden. This cracks their shells and condemns them to a long, lingering death. I don't like it at all! Others may take a different view.

Sometimes, during the winter months, I see a cluster of snails crammed into a crevice in a wall. I presume they do as some form of hibernation. There seems to be a hard film covering the exit of the shell. This weekend, however, I came across a large snail crawling across a step in the garden. It carried two other snails on its shell.
Later that day, I saw it returning back to a crack in the wall and it only had one upon its back. Does anyone know what was happening here? Does the first to wake from hibernation carry the others until they arise. All thoughts and theories welcomed.

2 comments:

  1. LOL, I don't even know how to try to respond to this one. I think this would be a long google episode if I really wanted to find out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know anything about snails, but great photograph. My friend and fellow blogger Nina Crittenden went through a snail phaze with her illustrations.

    ReplyDelete