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Original poster

Who helps snails

138 replies

Finlesswonder · 03/08/2023 20:58

My garden has loads of snails and I help them along their path. If I see a baby snail wandering along the concrete I teleport it to a plant. Today there was a snail at the very tip of a very long leaf, so it was basically upside down. I could see it stretching it's eyes down as far as it could to try and get down to the ground beneath it, and it was coming so close but couldn't quite make it. I wasn't sure whether it would have the ability to U-turn on such a long fragile leaf, so I pressed down higher up the leaf with my finger so it could finally make contact with the ground and go on its merry way.

Does anyone else do this? I was also wondering whether it does them more harm than good to gently pull them off whatever they're on. And also, if a snail lands on its back, can it right itself?

OP posts:
Tlolljs · 03/08/2023 23:03

Supposing they’ve been trying for ages to get to a particular spot and you pick them up and put them back at the beginning again? 😁

Knittedfairies · 03/08/2023 23:07

A relative once collected snails in a lidded bucket then drove miles to set them free...

Createausername1970 · 03/08/2023 23:11

Flandango · 03/08/2023 22:58

Why is it ethically acceptable to kill flies but not snails? Does one have a soul and not the other?

Show quote history

I agree, it's very hypocritical of me. I just don't like flies, especially in the house. I had a bunny that was ill from fly strike some years ago, so I worry about my guinea pigs.

DarkModeDear · 03/08/2023 23:12

I help snails & worms, I leave slugs. I don’t harm them but I don’t go out of my way to move them. There’s no way I could pick one up, at least snails have a shell to hold.

I also put moths, bees, even wasps, back out of the window and give exhausted bees sugar water.

TeddyBeans · 03/08/2023 23:15

My son loves snails, he always points them out so gleefully when he spots them. We're always rescuing them from paths and he's genuinely upset when he sees a squished one. He's a really compassionate 5 year old, it's lovely 🥰

TeddyBeans · 03/08/2023 23:17

On a side note, I saved a butterfly today from inside a telephone box 😁 so I know where he gets it from brag brag

JaneJeffer · 03/08/2023 23:21

@Flandango because snails don't come into your house and vomit all over your food

Mademetoxic · 03/08/2023 23:23

ColonelRhubarbBikini · 03/08/2023 21:10

I thought I was in a small minority of people who do this. Glad to hear more do. I also leave a teaspoon of sugar water next to bees that lie exhausted on the path.

I did get rumbled once talking away to a snail. It was early in the morning on my commute and I rescued him from the pavement and was having a little chat with him about which bush looked best and that there was rain forecast for later so he’d like that and some dude I didn’t see was looking at me like I was completely off my head Blush

You can buy a bee revival kit keyring for bees. A keyring which has a little glass tube full of sugar water.

They're expensive but it's a godsend, especially if you're out and about in nature
:) I've helped many bees out and about with my keyring. :)

clpsmum · 03/08/2023 23:25

I do

Crinklycut · 03/08/2023 23:25

I help them and I have a superhero ‘Friend of the Snails’ theme tune that I sing when I do it!

And when I first took ds out in the pram after he was born, I didn’t want to take my hands off the pram to save a snail from a footpath, so I insisted that dh did it for me (because I couldn’t neglect my snail friends just because I had become a mother).

And DH did do it, bless him. He picked the snail up from the path and carefully placed it under a hedge where it would be safe, but later gently revealed to me that the snail had in fact turned out to be a piece of hardened dog poo.

Mademetoxic · 03/08/2023 23:25

LonginesPrime · 03/08/2023 21:17

I try not to step on them, but I'd be pretty pissed off if I was trying to do something and someone picked me up and put me down somewhere else.

What if they're trying to get to their babies or something? Or that leaf they're edging towards is the big dinner they've been looking forward to all week?

It could trigger some sort of existential crisis in them, like what is all of this even for if the universe just moves us round on a whim? I guess that's no different from humans really, though - someone on Godsnet is probably having the same debate about messing with humans and their trivial lives right now too.

But if they're in the middle of the pavement in a street... Surely by teleporting them somewhere safe is better than being squished by a giant ?

StEtienne93 · 03/08/2023 23:36

Yes I do! I love snails and get very upset if I accidentally crunch one underfoot in the dark.

nzborn · 03/08/2023 23:37

Yes and worms, thanks for the tip about tapping, last week I assisted a bumble bee

NoraLuka · 03/08/2023 23:39

Love this, I help them too. Also worms, bees and wasps. Not flies though.

TheBirdintheCave · 03/08/2023 23:39

Yes of course :) My two year old is also a fan of operation snail rescue.

penelopepipsqueak · 03/08/2023 23:45

Now , I've always relocated them but these two were just taking the piss right after I broke up with ex dp........
I mean really !

Who helps snails
EilonwyWithRedGoldHair · 03/08/2023 23:47

We save snails, DS loves them. We also have five pet garden snails we've had since they were eggs three years ago. They're surprisingly interesting, and after being raised in captivity ours are fussy eaters who like to hold out for cucumber.

I was always careful, but now feel even more guilt if I step on one - it could be one of the babies we set free, or a descendant...

I also give honey to exhausted bees, move worms to safety, provided shelter to slow worms and I'm terrible at gardening because I won't do areas I've seen wildlife in - our compost heap is completely overgrown now because I stopped using it while it had a bumble bee nest in it, and I've just had to pay someone to cut back the out of control brambles after I had to stop two years ago because of frogs.

On the plus side we get to see the slow worms, frogs, hedgehogs, dragonflies, red, yellow and black ants, slugs, snails (mainly garden, but there's a lot of banded snails on the forsythia), bush crickets, grasshoppers and so on. DS did a lot of bug hunts when he was younger - and one summer we had to go out every morning and count the cinnabar moth caterpillars.

StBrides · 03/08/2023 23:50

ThatFraggle · 03/08/2023 20:59

And worms on the path.

Yup, me too.

Slugs can fend for themselves though...sometimes I give them flying lessons by flinging them over the fence.

StBrides · 03/08/2023 23:51

@EilonwyWithRedGoldHair honey isn't so good for bees. They're funny about honey which isn't their own...Sugar water will do a great job though :)

Original poster
Finlesswonder · 03/08/2023 23:52

Love reading your replies! The other day a snail was climbing up my glass of water so I could actually watch it from its underside. I was amazed to see its little mouth opening and closing like a fish as it went, don't ask me why it never occured to me that they have actual mouths but it didn't.

I really want to love bees and I know they're great but they make me nervous. What would prompt a bee to sting you? Could it bang into you or land on you without stinging?

I'm not a huge fan of earwigs (who is?) something about the way they move...

OP posts:
thebloodycatwontstopmeowing · 03/08/2023 23:54

I lob them over the fence with a spade

Original poster
Finlesswonder · 03/08/2023 23:54

I have two trays of wilting half dead cat grass I can't bring myself to throw away as they've become a bit of a snail community centre

OP posts:
avocadotofu · 03/08/2023 23:55

I do this too and with worms and slugs.

SoCentralRain · 04/08/2023 00:04

Bruisername · 03/08/2023 21:13

We were in holiday when ds was 8 and there were worms all over the hotels tennis court. He spent about half an hour moving them to safety. Not sure he would do that now as a 16yo!

I wouldn't be so sure. I often have a proud mummy moment when I see my 18 yr old DS bend down to move snails off paths so they don't get squashed 🤗

I had a lifeless butterfly in the garden the other day so I tried the sugar water trick and she came to life and fluttered away.

nonamesavailable123 · 04/08/2023 00:11

I love snails.I had a pet African land snail for 12 years. I even have a snail tattoo on my foot!

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