Subject: more on snails?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 13:43:48 -0500 (EST)

Dan,

Now, I wouldn't want to rush into anything beyond agreeing with you about
possible food value for the unsquemish or to say anything to dissuade snail
stompers with finicky noses. Some folks determined to kill off snails
unnnatural-like advocate putting out a basin of beer so at least they can be
happy when killed. Beats the snailbait stuff, but I have only tried it (the
beer that is) once or twice to get them in mood to talk about mutual
opportunities and problems in sharing.

Can't say I have ever analyzed powdered snail shell to see if there was
anything more than calcium carbonate. My hit is that there gotta be some
trace minerals of possible benefit in those shells. Haven't got that kind of
money or lab equipment. Might be a worthwhile project, though. Maybe get
somebody a Ph.D. at one of those fancy schools or something.

Meanwhile, one of my personal way to deal with snails getting more than their
share is to have extended conversations with snail devas. Be surprised what
they have to say. Other than just being left alone, they sorta like the idea
of contributing positively to pleasant breezes by becoming windchimes or
adding to better soils by providing some grit maybe even helping add some
trace minerals back. After all, the whole remineralization business is about
restoring trace minerals to depleted or deficient soils. If that doesn't turn
you on, call it some free grit around which water, air and such can organize
themselves to break up clay or loosen up the soil just a bit more than doing
nothing.

Always glad to get your hit on matters of import.

Milo Clark

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 08:40:02 -0500 (EST)

Milo:

Well, I hope that the snail devas are more cooperative than the slug devas.
 They seem mentally, well..., slugish.  I've never gotten cooperation from
them.  Spinders are share fellows, however, and quickly come around to
strategies of mutual benefit. I delt with both these manifestations of Mother
Earth in a shelter in Mexico some years ago.
	
I wouldn't trouble the list with these matters, however.  Without analaysis
to the contrary, I'd have to suggest that the snail shells are poor sources
of minerals other than CaCO3.  The snail bodies (meat) themselves may be
better sources.  I'm not familiar with the snail digestive system.  Do they
have gizzards?  I kind of thought that they just chewed up plants, absorbed
what they want, and squished out the rest.  In that case, they would be
concentrated versions of the minerals in the plants, though I suppose that
they may accumulate some.  I've inferred, for example, that fish sequester
potassium in aquaculture tanks, which is why plants grown in the water routine
ly look like garbage without supplements.  (Genuine aquatic plants doubtless
do better.)  A gizzard implies that the snail would pick up mineral matter to
help grind up food for digestion, like earthworms, skinks, and turkey
vultures do, to name a non-representative sampling.  My informal impression
is that they have rasps for mouths that grind stuff up pretty well on the way
in.  Any slimeologists in the group who can provide more precise and accurate
info on this matter?

Dan

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
permaculture training by email. Copyright, 1996, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O.
Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA  [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.