Lot Of Snails

There have been many, many snails this summer.  I suppose their number is not unusual.  I not only see occupied shells with their slow moving residents, but also abandoned shells bleached white, standing out against the dark soil looking like a mushroom, or a piece of quartz waiting to be found.  I have a collection of those bleached shells sitting under my computer monitor reminding me of the natural world that is just outside my door.  All sizes, ranging from 1.125 to a tiny .5 inch.  Sixteen of them, looking up at me in their swirled arrangement.

Tiny Teeth

These snails eat all sorts of things — fruit, leaves, bark, algae, limestone.  Wow!  Imagine that, they eat limestone!  They manage to eat these things with their “radula”, which is a rasplike structure with tiny teeth that is used for scraping food particles off a surface.  In West Virginia Wildlife Magazine it says, “If you place a land snail gently on your hand it may “taste” your skin, a harmless sensation that feels like a cat’s licking.”  I don’t think I’ll try that!  I’ll just watch, and take photographs!