"Dick Chambers" wrote in message
...


Here in Leeds 17 (a couple of hundred metres to the West of the A61
Harrogate Road, and the same distance North of the A6210 Ring Road), the
problem is not necessarily directly related to the recent prolonged wet
weather. Of course, I take it for granted that we will always see more
snails on a wet night. For the last six years, I have seen large numbers
of snails on any wet night that God has sent. Summer 2006 was much drier
than average, yet we still saw enormous numbers of snails that would
appear on the few wet evenings that we did have. As I said in my original
posting, I hardly ever saw a snail in the first 27 years I lived here,
even on a wet summer evening. Now, and for the past few years, their
numbers have become spectacular.

There's another consideration of course, you - and I - might not have been
as observant during other times. /unless you have been doing a long research
of course - I haven't.

I am fascinated by your low-key reaction : -- "I've lived in the same
house in Leeds for the last 43 years. In the first few years I saw a lot
of snails but few slugs. I haven't noticed any difference in the small
variations since then.". Quite different from my own experience, which is
spectacular, yet we live at most only a few miles apart.

There are local differences in everything. My neighbours curse daisies in
their lawns and strive permantly to rid themselves of coltsfoot. I can grow
neither despite many attempts.

Mary