Garden Snail, A Threat to Your Garden

Earlier this morning, while working things out for the planned garden in the frontyard of our cookery shop, some species of slow-moving animals were found. The garden snails spared us a visit.

Snails can be found in the garden, ponds and in the sea even. They have a soft, moist, slimy, and long unsegmented bodies which are protected by a hard shell. The one that we have earlier are garden snails which are scientifically named Helix Aspersa. They are gastropods from the class Gastropoda which is a latin word that means "belly footed animal" (gastro = stomach, pod = foot).

A garden snail just like any other has a pair of tentacles. Normally, one of its pair is longer than the other. Its eye is on the tip of the longer one. It smells and feels its surrounding through its shorter tentacle. Yes! This pair of tentancles is very important to the snail.

It also has something in its mouth that's used for grinding up its food, and it's called Radula which is like a tongue, a rough one like a file with rows of tiny teeth. The garden snails eat both living and decaying plants. They also chew fruits and succulent plant barks. It can cause serious damage to crops. It is for this reason also why some the farmers and gardeners are so upset with them. So steemians who are just starting to grow their garden, beware of snails.

It moves by creeping on the flat foot underneath its body.The foot has muscles which contract and expand as it moves and this create a kind of rippling movement that pushes the snail to move forward. Its pod has a special gland which produces a slimy mucus to make a slippery gland. The slime comes out in the front and it hardens when it comes into contact with air.

Snails have varied shaped shells. It can be spiral high, flat, pointed or rounded. They do not like dry and hot conditions. They are most active at night and on cloudy days for they dislike sunshine and brightness very much. Snails can live up to 5 to 10 years.

They are Ahermaphrodite, animals which are both male and female. Therefore, they can produce sperms and eggs at the same time. However, they need to exchange sperms with each other to fertilize the eggs.

Snails spend many hours courting before they mate. They twist themselves around each other and cover themselves with slime. Right after mating, the snails will go look for a soft ground to dig and lay their eggs for about 2.5 to 4 cm deep in the soil. They lay eggs most often during the warm and damp weather and it's normally once a month. Each can lay an average of 85 eggs, and depending on the temperature and moisture of the soil, they hatch in 2 to 4 weeks. Their most active months are from February to October. Snails can reproduce rapidly.

That's all for today! May you have a great time reading it. Hope it helps you in a way or two. Thank you!

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