[compost_tea] Snails, some info

From: Ted Peterson <ted.peterson_at_tcsn.net>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 11:44:49 -0700

Well, well, well. It looks like certain species of snail actually creates =
environments for fungi and eat the fungi. Check out the link:

http://www.pnas.org/misc/archive120103.html#HL1

You know I have noticed that on my lily plant, the snails cut a hole in the=
 leaf and defecate right by the hole. I never paid much attention to it be=
fore. So maybe these brown snails like the fungi that grow on this stuff b=
ecause they keep coming back to the locations.

I am going to take some leaf scrapings and see if I can find any fuzzy grow=
ths. If I water the plant, it keeps the feces wet enough for fungal growth=
 because I can see the fuzzy stuff growing. I never considered that the sn=
ails did that to grow and eat the fungi. Anyway when the snails left the l=
eaves dipped in tea, they left a lot of feces then came back to the leaf th=
is AM. They had spent a whole day attached to the inside of the can and I =
noticed they were back on the leaves this AM. They even ate some of the no=
n tea stuff. The lettuce pieces are starting to wilt and decompose (turn b=
rown) and they like that stuff too it seems.

You know, I am finding out that I know very little about land mollusks. =
 

By the way, my wife told me to NEVER again serve her food (my snail dish) s=
he hates in a disguised form. I asked her if she liked it and her reply wa=
s something along the lines that like or dislike wasn't the issue (she love=
d it by the way.) but that I had been dishonest about the dish. She said i=
t was like serving a tasty pork dish to a Rabbi then telling him/her afterw=
ords that the dish was pork. I don't really see her point in that respect =
but I gotta live with her and I have found that a happy wife is far better =
than an unhappy wife. So no more snails for her.

Ted Peterson
EW/SOE



Received on Wed May 19 2004 - 22:34:00 EDT

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