I want your pest snails to feed my snakes! :)

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Vanda lover

My niece had one of those trap door type snails that closed on the leg of her turtle and drowned the poor thing.

Must have been an awfully tiny turtle, poor bugger.


Philip, thought this table might help you in your search for aquatics to try that lack an operculum:
Various freshwater snails

And a person/place or two for you to check:

http://www.adeex.us/contact_ads.php?id=13858

[For Sale:] Snails and slugs - feeders and pets

[Vanda lover]

It was. It was a red eared terrapin. It was also a very large snail

[ACK2]

I do wish you didn't live on the other coast. Somehow I don't think they would last . We have slugs of all sizes. They get into the lettuce and hostas etc etc. The snails will not do for your snakes. They have yellow shells with black stripes and trap doors. Very destructive in the garden. I was picking off snails today while doing garden cutback. I wish you luck and will keep an eye on the replies here to make sure you work this out.

[Vanda lover]

Originally Posted by ACK2

I do wish you didn't live on the other coast. Somehow I don't think they would last . We have slugs of all sizes. They get into the lettuce and hostas etc etc. The snails will not do for your snakes. They have yellow shells with black stripes and trap doors. Very destructive in the garden. I was picking off snails today while doing garden cutback. I wish you luck and will keep an eye on the replies here to make sure you work this out.

Those snails sound like the banded snails that we have here and also are in Ontario. I have been told that they spread by rail and are eatable.

[ACK2]

Thank you Vanda Lover for giving me the name. Actually they are pretty to look at, but yikes are they destructive!

Philip did you get your snails from any of those sites?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

My neighbor came through with some snails. I also caught some that did some damage to my orchids.

There was also another person who was selling some, but I had to turn the order down because I have more snails than I can use to feed the snakes.

I'm finding that snails are very seasonal animals. Unless you're farming them on a regular basis, you're at the mercy of whatever scraps you can find until there's a population explosion.

It's a good thing snakes can go an extremely long time without food.

[Vanda lover]

Snakes are used to feast or famine for those same reasons.

[Kevin_PR]

Where in the world did you find these guy. So they do not crush the snails they remove them fro their shell?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Eskevingo

Where in the world did you find these guy. So they do not crush the snails they remove them fro their shell?

I got them from a reptile importer here in SoCal. He imported them from Malaysia.

Yes, they remove the snails from their shells.

South America has their own types of snail eating snakes belonging in the genus Sibon and Dipsas.

[RJSquirrel]

I saw the snakes on animal planet diggin snails out of the shells. They have a specialized fang that acts as a tool. The snails fought back though and started growing in the opposite direction from the way the snakes fang/tooth/claw could bend...snails fight back