Janet Baraclough wrote:
Emrys asked Susie of Arran whether she had tried a night hunt for
snails eating her rhubarb. No need; snail populations and activity are
minimal in Scotland. On the Scottish mainland (much colder than here),
I very rarely saw one, and never bigger than my little finger nail. Here
on Arran where it's mild, there are a few more, the biggest the size of
my thumbnail, with thin, striped pastel shells. Maybe I spot one of
these small pretty snails once or twice in a month.

My relatives gardens around London and the Home Counties have hundreds
of huge rapacious grey/brown snails the size of a walnut.

The question for urglers is; where does the UK's Big Rapacious Snail
zone start and finish? With global warming, are they advancing
northwards?

Janet.

Well, as I said in a recent mail: thousand of them (and slugs) in my
garden in Edinburgh! It really is a MAJOR pain.

Philippe

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes
Oh! Are they the big brown and grey shell sort, or small and pastel
stripey shells?
Janet, I have huge ones in France, almost as big as a small tangerine.
They have a whitish/grey shell - can I eat them if I prepare them
properly?
--
Judith Lea

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from Philippe Gautier contains
these words:



Well, as I said in a recent mail: thousand of them (and slugs) in my
garden in Edinburgh! It really is a MAJOR pain.


Oh! Are they the big brown and grey shell sort, or small and pastel
stripey shells?

Janet

Big brown (not as big as the french whitish ones, but definitely not the
small stripey ones..)

Philippe

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...


(Thinks...whatever did happen to my edible snail? )

Lol

Janet, I have huge ones in France, almost as big as a small tangerine.
They have a whitish/grey shell - can I eat them if I prepare them
properly?

You can eat what you wish, Judith, whether you enjoy it is another
question :-)

. They sound like the edible snail to me; I had one as a pet once (
after a stormy showdown at the petshop. I had just sold a lot of baby
mice (under duress) for enough money to buy a snake, but was denied
permission for the snake by my father. He let me keep the snail
freerange in his greenhouse, though.

(Thinks...whatever did happen to my edible snail? )
Mice, snakes and snails, are you sure that you are not my younger
daughter. Mary went to bed clutching her "pet" snail. She was
distressed in the morning to find that she had lost it - I found it - on
the ceiling.
--
Judith Lea