To let my 3yo pick up slugs and snails in the garden?

[peanutbuttersarnies]

3yo ds is always interested in slugs snails, beetles, flys etc. I imagine like any other 3yo. When he found a snail in the garden the other day he likes to hav a good look. Then the other day he started picking up by the shell. I find it a bit squeamish but try not to let it show. I pretend to be interested too. I try to tell him what they like best and where to put it. He trys to feed it leaves. And basically treats it like his pet for half an hour. Hoping hes made it happy. then the other day he came up to me with a slug in his hand to show me. As much as I don't particularly like the thought myself I don't like to discourage him. I don't want him getting phobias of creepy crawlies and slimy things. I let him hold them as long as he's not hurting them.
But today in the garden dh started trying to implement a look but don't touch policy with insects etc. Ds was a bit confused then obviously.
What sort of policy do other people take? Aibu? He knows to stay away from wasps and bees.

fungal nail from slugs : links please

Why would I have a link, I'm just relating what happened to a relative

Perfectly normal, I used to do it.

GPs advised at the time to de-worm me often. I remember having the "worm medicine" often but never connected the two. It was only at school I realised that most children weren't dewormed that I twigged and finally stopped picking up all the garden 'pets'.

I remember collecting lots of worms together on the patio then wandering off. When I came back they'd shrivelled up. :(

Look and touch but don't harm. It's good to be interested.

hiddenhome
because two things happening does not in any way prove causation

thisusername
the worm medicine we used to have at school (pripsin) was for hookworms and threadworms - neither of which live in slugs snails frogs or toads.

It only happened to the hand that she used to pick up the slugs.

Carry on fiddling with these animals if you're comfortable

wikipedia says nothing about fungal infections from touching slugs. But it does mention infections from eating them...

hidden
I've been picking up slugs for the last 47 years and not got fungal nail yet, nor have any people mentioned it in the RHS magazine - and their data set is quite large ...
crushing lily beetles is the stinky one.

Talk Are you telling me, that my parents dewormed me like clockwork throughout my pre-school/early school days for laughs?

It was horrid. I knew I shouldn't have believed them, they were always too enthusiastic about it.

I used to eat stag beetles as a child. That's probably why there aren't many left now.

I used to eat slugs when I was little its normal behavior for little children, great learning and development, and it can be a continuous theme as they get older as a pp suggested having a book to keep track of what they found

thisusername
I have never ever been able to eat processed cherry flavours because of having been dosed with Pripsin termly as a kid.
Yes, it was worth it - that is why we do not have to worm OUR kids
but kids with allergies actually benefit from a dose of worms
so it goes full circle!

Yes, I was asking about the link between snails/slugs and any infections because I spent hours as a child picking up snails and letting them crawl on me, loved watching ants scurrying around, woodlice under things, all that type of stuff (except big fat slugs which are always horrid). I would be quite surprised if there was anything wrong with picking snails up (and I still do if they are on the path and put them on a leaf).

My dd1 ate a ladybird but that was very silly and I had to pick the bits out of her mouth because she was crying so much:(

this
maybe they didn't find a good oarenting guide and used the puppy book insteads
:o

When I was 6 I used to get an old large sweetie jar from the corner shop, fill it with leaves and then go off collecting snails. I'd keep them for about a week (making sure they had fresh moist vegetation) and then let them go. They are fascinating creatures.

I also collected slugs when I was 4. And in 1976 (very good year for them) I collected a jar of ladybirds every day and then released them.

Let him explore. It is so much fun.

at typo

Now they call them 'minibeasts' and have a whole project on them at school. Obviously try not to let your child eat them but beyond that, snails in particular are fascinating with their little eyes on stalks that retract when you touch them even though you were told not to

I also had snails or grasshoppers in jars to observe.
feeding snails with carrots until their poo is orange is quite fascinating.

I used to spend hours keeping and 'racing' garden snails when I was a kid. Never did me any harm (apart from leaving me with a lifelong snail addiction, so I now have 7 giant African snails ).

As long as hands are washed etc handling snails is fascinating!

Dd has a snail at the moment. It has lettuce, blueberries, corriander and parsley, it loves the parsley.

She loves them and has been picking them up for years. I hope the don,t carry nasties, she,s been fine so far.

@ MouseyMouse* If I can get my giants to eat tomato, carrot and some cucumber I can get a whole traffic light of poo going!

Wow *MyCar" the African Land Snail I had (Victor) would only eat cucumber. He survived for 8 years.

aw peanut, he sounds lovely - so cute!