Subject: practical use for snails?

From: Martha Hills <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 17:41:59 +1000

>Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 15:30:59 +1000
>From: Adam Mark <[email-masked]>
>Reply-To: [email-masked]
>Organization: School of Anatomy, The University of New South Wales
>To: [email-masked]
>Subject: practical use for snails?
>
>I've been doing the snail pail trail around the garden for years now and
>have hand picked and discarded x number of hundreds? I don't even
>particularly mind doing this.What I do mind is the bucket of dead and
>SMELLY snails. Does anyone know anything that snails or snail shells
>could be used for (other than food) I haven't been putting them on the
>compost as I heard somewhere they are not suitable, but they must be
>suitable for something other than a big hole in the ground.
>
I usually stomp on them at the time.  It's a quicker death for them,
and I hope the ants haul away the leftovers.  After stepping on them,
though, I can't imagine eating them.  One other tactic has been
to clean up places where they hold their conventions; if fewer are born,
there are fewer for me to deal with. Someone else can probably comment
on animals that will eat snails.  That's my next step.

Onward, Martha

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Martha R. Hills
Coordinator, Authority work           The secret of all victory
Corporate Information Management      lies in the organization
CSIRO Australia                       of the non-obvious.

Email:  [email-masked]
Telephone:  + (0)3 9518 5941
Fax:        + (0)3 9518 5959
Mail: Locked Bag 89, Clayton South VIC Australia 3169

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 07:20:29 -0500 (EST)

>suitable for something other than a big hole in the ground.

1)  Plant something over the holes.  I think you will find tomatoes
especially grateful, or you can give a tree a good start.

2)  You could get ducks and go from snails to eggs (protein surrounded by
calcium carbonate--hardly any change).  Duck eggs are great.

3)  Why not eat them?  I don't understand.

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.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 19:54:07 -0500 (EST)

Are they thin or thick shelled snails? The thicker shells, when boiled clean
and run a bit in a tumbler with a fine grit polish, make windchimes and other
decor. Slit the shells longitudinally about two thirds on a bandsaw or
lapidary saw, drill a hole in the top, hang a small nail inside, make a stout
knot to hold it down from the top a fraction and run the string up through
the hole to attach the shells to a light frame. Hang in the wind and enjoy
the delicate tinkling.

If that is too much like work, clean them (boiling is best) and grind them up
before putting the shells in your compost or simply scatter them around to
work in your soil. The finer the grind, up to powder (the best), the more
benefit from remineralization is possible. While I am not sure based on
personal experience, I have heard it said that the ground shell helps to
persuade snails to go elsewhere.

Milo Clark
Berkeley CA USA

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 12:14:21 -0500 (EST)

>persuade snails to go elsewhere.

Milo:

Remineralization?  What minerals do snail shells contain besides calcium
carbonate?  I'm most interested!  

I would have thought that the main fertility benefit would come from the fact
that they are food and that food makes good fertlizer, e.g. NPK+variable
trace.