I bought a bag of frozen sweet potato which is all cut into small cubes and I've been trying him on those. Early signs are good and last night he ate half a cube of that, some apple and some runner bean leaves. Hopefully he sticks with the potato otherwise I'm going to have to chuck it in a stew or something.
I'm still working on trying to get the perfect Silky Snail photo but I think it's going to need a studio setup and merging a few photos to get all the hairs in focus. They're completely nocturnal and very shy though so my lamp can often make them hide which doesn't help.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
That’s a beautiful snail, I’ve never seen one like that.
I’ve just picked the first cucumbers from the GH, hope they like them. There was hell up in their box last night, I’d had the baby and the smallest of the group in a separate tank, four big ones in another, last night I put them all in one tank, this morning it was a shambles, the coconut shells upside down and moved, one still out, the baby had put himself into a shell which belonged to one of the big ones, so he squashed in there as well, up turning it at the same time. they obviously weren’t happy so I’ve moved them back today as they were. They must have some senses to know something was different.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
OH has just been reading an article on GALS in Florida ( The Independent on line today's date ). I haven't read it yet but would be worth looking at maybe ?
It looks a bit 'tabloid' to me. The USA gets periodic reports of GALS ending up roaming free and has eradicated them fairly quickly so far. The lungworm thing is misleading as most slugs and snails can carry it so even without GALS the risk is there. And the meningitis link seems very rare and is generally caught by not cooking your snails properly before eating them
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Yes - I still haven't actually read the article myself but thought from what OH read out to me it smacked rather of Panic stations as carrying lungworm is already a known factor. Hadn't heard of the Meningitis link before but like most things, seems rather overstated. "My" Nuns, when I lived in France, often presented me with Snails to cook - needless to say I thanked them profusely and then just let them loose later on in the woodland garden. All I can recall from those days was that you had to keep your snails contained and feed them only with "something ?" to clean their system before you attempted to cook them. I confess I've never investigated further.
He's just had an upgrade to a bigger bug box so I'm looking for a suitable sized house at the moment. He tends to tuck under a dandelion leaf quite happily though. I found him a cuttlefish bone on the weekend. A nice fresh one. It's been rinsed with fresh water and now just needs airing out to try and get rid of the slight aroma of squid
Well I'll admit I was wrong on this. The snail won't touch my cuttlefish bone and insists on shop bought instead. I guess the salt content is too high. The pet shop has an entire bin full of them though so I stocked up.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I buy the cuttlefish from eBay, big bagful, they sell off cuts, but big enough for snails.
You can collect your own but they need several boilings and changing water before they are salt free, Easier to buy them, ever put salt on a slug or snail, they disappear to a puddle of water. They have a lovely set of teeth, they make a rasping sound when they scrape the cuttlefish.
I think I mentioned to you to make sure your boys wash their hands well after handling them, hope I did but I know you would anyway.
Ive got yet another lot of eggs if anyone wants a few. There’s about 200 in a clutch. I always feel guilty crushing them, it’s such an effort for them to mate and then lay, they are exhausted after both efforts.
The good news is that they love the Romaine lettuces 🥬 I grew for them.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
My sister, the paediatric nurse, had a child in the hospital suffering from salmonella they'd caught from one of their pets. I've had it drummed into me for 30 years of keeping reptiles though so it's second nature now.
I'll have to take a progress photo. The rate this thing has grown in the last couple of months is just unbelievable.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Ive got yet another lot of eggs if anyone wants a few. There’s about 200 in a clutch. I always feel guilty crushing them, it’s such an effort for them to mate and then lay, they are exhausted after both efforts.
The good news is that they love the Romaine lettuces 🥬 I grew for them.
The Brians must be psychic Lyn - I'll email you later as I may have a taker for some of them - just need to check with her
Posts
I’ve just picked the first cucumbers from the GH, hope they like them.
There was hell up in their box last night, I’d had the baby and the smallest of the group in a separate tank, four big ones in another, last night I put them all in one tank, this morning it was a shambles, the coconut shells upside down and moved, one still out, the baby had put himself into a shell which belonged to one of the big ones, so he squashed in there as well, up turning it at the same time.
they obviously weren’t happy so I’ve moved them back today as they were.
They must have some senses to know something was different.
Hadn't heard of the Meningitis link before but like most things, seems rather overstated. "My" Nuns, when I lived in France, often presented me with Snails to cook - needless to say I thanked them profusely and then just let them loose later on in the woodland garden. All I can recall from those days was that you had to keep your snails contained and feed them only with "something ?" to clean their system before you attempted to cook them. I confess I've never investigated further.
You can collect your own but they need several boilings and changing water before they are salt free, Easier to buy them, ever put salt on a slug or snail, they disappear to a puddle of water.
They have a lovely set of teeth, they make a rasping sound when they scrape the cuttlefish.
I think I mentioned to you to make sure your boys wash their hands well after handling them, hope I did but I know you would anyway.
Ive got yet another lot of eggs if anyone wants a few. There’s about 200 in a clutch. I always feel guilty crushing them, it’s such an effort for them to mate and then lay, they are exhausted after both efforts.
The good news is that they love the Romaine lettuces 🥬 I grew for them.