Snail Fail

one morning's cull

As I plucked my 60th snail, this one off the denuded stem of a native plant, I began to wonder a few things. Like, how do these things multiply so quickly? What's the most humane way of getting rid of them? Are slugs really snails looking for new shells, or do snail shells grow along with the creatures in them? Are snails native to California, and if not, how did they get here? Well, last question first, they are not native, and like so many pests, they got here when humans brought them here. In this case, the humans wanted escargots, and of course, things got a little out of hand (as they tend to do ~ will we never learn?), and voilà!, the destructive garden snail. These guys are hermaphrodites and can self-fertilize, but they also cross-fertilize, and they lay an average of 86 eggs at a time. Snails are born with soft, translucent shells that harden as the babies eat calcium-rich foods and then grow with them in a very cool way. (Actually, snails are cute and interesting, and if they weren't so very prolific over here and so destructive, I wouldn't mind them at all): http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/gastro/brown_garden_snail.htm, http://www.snail-world.com/snail-facts/, and of course, http://mentalfloss.com/article/48796/are-snails-born-shells