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SNAIL FORCE is recruiting

(36 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by Sheeptoucher
  • Latest reply from sallyhinch
  • This topic is resolved

12

  1. Sheeptoucher
    Member

    Hi there - this is a daft ask but I need to find a population* of stripey snails.Has anyone seen any? There were some around where I live in balerno but they seem have all gone, leaving behind just one empty shell... I know technically this is a "cycling" forum but I thought I'd try my luck!

    This is for the Open University course I'm doing - basically the two (allegedly common) species of stripey snails have their 1) Stripeyness** and 2) Basic colour from two alleles, and the resulting snails are selected for by the environment. The whole course is currently counting snails and making bar charts and commenting on how much fun they are having, and I'm all left out. :-( I just need to write down what colour they are and how stripey they are (some have no stripes which is helpful) I won't be taking them away or selling them to restaurants I promise. I might swear at them a bit though. The snails are Cepea hortensis maybe but more likely Cepea nemoralis. if you are interested!

    * well at least 20
    ** science term

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Aberlady Local Nature Reserve was the last place I noticed them.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    Will check my walls, they used to live there but maybe they migrate south in winter?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. Sheeptoucher
    Member

    Thanks IWRATS its a bit far but I'm thinking it may be worth it!

    Gembo if you have some I would be willing to pay 25p per snail

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. gembo
    Member

    Off out now with torch

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. unhurt
    Member

    the resulting snails are selected for by the environment

    Is "the environment" a nice term for Hungry Thrushes and Voracious Hedgehogs?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    These snails will be fair trade. I'll take 24p, the mollusc must have its cut. I'll load the trailer tomorrow. Riches beckon.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. wingpig
    Member

    I'll have a look at the wall between Craigentinny golf course and Fleming Place. Used to be loads there.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I'm going to organise a snail drove. Stance the snails every five metres. Be with you in a decade.

    Need to check if the law still allows me to carry a brace of pistols while droving.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. wingpig
    Member

    Sorry - no snails on the Snail Wall. Not alive ones, anyway.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. paulmilne
    Member

    I'll check under the flowers hanging down the side of my raised beds - that's usually where the snails hang out - and report back tonight/tomorrow.

    If I remember, that is ...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Do they need to be living? I had a hedgehog in my garden a little while back, and there were lots of crunching sounds when it disappeared into the local jungle my flowerbed.

    I did have a huge collection of snails living in my garage but I may have evicted them.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  13. Darkerside
    Member

    Hypothetically speaking, is the stripe inspection process sufficiently rigorous to detect, say, tippex?

    If not, I'm prepared to undercut both the chancers above and provide bulk amounts of the little blighters at the bargain price of £1 per five.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  14. Sheeptoucher
    Member

    They can be dead but fresh.

    Tippex, hmm. They do not check the snails but this forum could come back to haunt me just before I get my Nobel prize for Snails in 20 years time...

    Thanks to everyone who has looked for the snails!!

    Posted 5 years ago #

  15. sallyhinch
    Member

    Encountered 3 in my garden just this afternoon, but Dumfries & Galloway is probably a bit far to come

    Posted 5 years ago #

  16. unhurt
    Member

    This has led me into molluscian reflections and hence to a rather nice prose poem from Francis Ponge:
    (There is more to be said about snails. First of all their immaculate clamminess. Their sangfroid. Their stretchiness.).

    Posted 5 years ago #

  17. gembo
    Member

    @sallyhinch, post them?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  18. Frenchy
    Member

    @sallyhinch, post them?

    Punchline's too obvious.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  19. sallyhinch
    Member

    I did actually put them to one side (normally snails found in my garden get flying lessons into the field) but when I came back later two of them had legged it, possibly rounded up by IWRATS on his snail drove. I've already sent a packet of dead wasps and assorted insects somewhere by post this year, but now that they ask you what's inside, I'd be a bit reluctant to post snails

    Posted 5 years ago #

  20. gembo
    Member

    @sallyhinch, even if you were using snail mail? (@frenchy yes obvious)

    Posted 5 years ago #

  21. Frenchy
    Member

    You don't get to write sentences like "I've already sent a packet of dead wasps and assorted insects somewhere by post this year..." without further explanation.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  22. unhurt
    Member

    When she hasn't time to do the ceremony with the goat she just posts smaller sacrifices direct to the PoP Weather Gods.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  23. Frenchy
    Member

    The PoP weather gods are appeased by dead wasps and assorted insects? Or is the idea to tire them out in autumn soo that they don't cause trouble in April?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  24. unhurt
    Member

    You have to keep them sweet with little presents all year round.

    This has me thinking though - perhaps this sort of thing explains where all the snails have gone? @sheeptoucher, maybe check for a sinister snail sacrifice cult operating in Balerno area.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  25. Frenchy
    Member

    You have to keep them sweet with little presents all year round.

    Christmas is sorted.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  26. gembo
    Member

    I thought the wasps and insects were sent to David Cameron as a protest against his idiotic idea of letting the people vote

    Posted 5 years ago #

  27. sallyhinch
    Member

    Haha! Nothing so subversive - I took part in the big wasp survey again this year.

    If you don't have a handy goat, the Weather Gods can be appeased by a regular whisky libation

    Posted 5 years ago #

  28. unhurt
    Member

    the big wasp survey - as I imagine it, this goes:

    1) Are you a wasp? Y / N / prefer not to say

    2) Do you like jam? Y / N / prefer not to say

    3) Do you enjoy stinging humans for no readily apparent reason?
    Y / N / prefer not to say

    4) Do you insist upon trying to drown yourself in @unhurt's al fresco glass of wine?
    Y / N / prefer not to say

    5) If you answered Y to (4) KINDLY JUSTIFY YOUR ACTIONS BELOW

    6) Please stop trying to hibernate in my living room curtains.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  29. gembo
    Member

    @unhurt, this is anti-wasp propaganda. Many types of bees can sting you and not die and some types of wasps do die when tey sting you.

    also Clegs are worse than wasps.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  30. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Big wasps? First time a hornet flew through a window into a room I was in I was in a house that contained a shotgun and my mind automatically summoned its location and image.

    Those mothers are juicy.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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