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Update:

Updated 2 June 2020 - New blog post - A walk down Briton Ferry Canal

Friday 12 June 2015

Day 12 - 30 Days Wild - A study of snails

Well the weather didn't stay nice for very long, and now on day 12 the weather is raining, dull and actually quite cold. Our planned evening walk turned into a study of snails in the garden.
Love them or loathe them, snails are everywhere - some gardeners' nightmare, but I actually like snails and love the different colours that their shells can be. One of the big no-no's in my garden is NO slug pellets, so that the snails that live here have pretty much the run of the garden. I also like to encourage them because they are a good source of food for hedgehogs (although sadly I haven't seen any hogs this year).
From my exploration it seems like I have a couple of different species of snails in the garden. Check out the pics to see what I found...

A  pair of brown-lipped snails.
Common garden snail on the lilies by the pond.
A brown-lipped snail chomping on some fungi on an old piece of wood.
A white-lipped snail on a piece of wood by the pond.
A garden snail outside my front door.
A garden snail chomping on the hostas - one of their favoured plants (but don't tell my mum he was there}
Garden snails are quite big - this was over 6cm long!
When I came back into the warm I did a bit of research on our slimy friends and realised they are fascinating! Here are five snail facts that are really interesting...
  1. Garden snails are hermaphrodites - they both have male and female reproductive organs and can mate with themselves. Although they usual find a partner.
  2. A single garden snail can have 430 babies in a year.
  3. Snails are completely blind and can't hear either, but their sense of smell is phenomenal.
  4. A garden snail has over 14,000 teeth! Imagine their dentist bill!
  5. Some can live for 5 years, but some lucky ones can live up to 25 years!
Studying some of my wildlife books
It's great to learn new things about creatures you take for granted and snails are truly fascinating. Lets hope the rain doesn't stay around for long so that I can go out exploring!

I do like rain and it's essential for the garden to grow, but I do hope it doesn't stay for days!

2 comments:

  1. Lovely photos - I love the variety in colours on snail shells

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    Replies
    1. Thank you - They are fascinating creatures :)

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