Providing Snails?

[Andee]

If I could provide Helix Aspersa species of snails would people be interested? They could be from a clean culture and you could get various sizes depending on whether you wanted to raise them or just feed them off?

 

[MSMorgan]

I'd be interested. How are the Vietnamese stick insects coming along?

 

[Andee]

They are doing well I had planned to do a shit ton of shipping last week but the temps here were just too high for me to be comfortable, we didn't hit 85 regularly enough. I mean now would be perfect and we are supposed to have rain tomorrow and Monday so I feel like if I can skip out when there isn't thunder I can definitely ship then, if not those days I will put them in the larger collecting cages before putting them in the shipping delis. Little temperature sensitive brats <3

I need to look into some good homemade snail traps... I think some greens would be the best way to go and some pitfall jars.

 

[jamest0o0]

I might buy some more lol, even though I have a colony right now.

 

[Andee]

What species are yours James?

 

[jamest0o0]

Helix illegalersa's

 

[Andee]

lmao XD, I find it funny that they are supposedly illegal but they are such an invasive species here for so long that they are impossible to get rid of.

 

[jamest0o0]

They're over in cali?

 

[Andee]

Yeah... they are in a lot of places in the US... I think most places they don't survive well is deserty areas that are more sandy and dry deserts. We are technically a desert but we are considered a high desert through out most of california. I already have my snail trap and I am waiting for some, they likely will start showing up as the day cools off.

 

[jamest0o0]

Do you get bad winters? Can they survive snow and crap? We get in the negatives usually a couple weeks out of the year in PA

 

[Andee]

Snails go into hibernation when it gets super cold. and sometimes adult don't overwinter depending on the species.

 

[werecat]

I would be interested in snails! Small size specifically.

 

[Virgil1972]

I would be interested to.

 

[Andee]

Awesome 8D ok trap is doing well today so ^^

 

[NickTide]

I might be interested... is there a particular benefit to snails (calcium, etc.) over bugs? Do they swallow them whole?

 

[jamest0o0]

They are high in calcium, they chew up the shell a bit and then swallow. I took a video of mine eating a pretty large one. He crunched the shell pretty hard where he could and swallowed the rest. The body digests the shell

 

[Franquixote]

I got rid of my colony. Very messy- they poop a whole lot.
I wish you woulda taken mine- I gave them to my biology teacher friend.
I might have eggs in the substrate though, going to check it out tomorrow.

 

[Andee]

Lol, if you do I will happily take them, sadly I didn't think anyone would want to actually buy them XD and therefore I would just have too many snails everywhere.

 

[Franquixote]

I didn't sell them , I gave them away.

Have you gotten into this before Andee? Honestly, if you are seriously considering it you ought to go monumentally big, get the proper permits (from what I understand no cost just a little paperwork), and consider doing a greenhouse of them, even if it is just a shed sized thing. The caviar is the most expensive in the world and the work involved actually seems to only make sense on a huge basis. In other words, the time spent dealing with 10,000 snails is probably less and easier than dealing with 100 snails. You need some sort of self-sustaining system that doesn't involve daily maintenance because they are horrifically messy on a small scale.

 

[jamest0o0]

Honestly unless these snails all die at the same time for me, IME they're surprisingly easy to care for... wipe off the sides once a blue moon and throw veggies in. My springtails and isos have boomed in just a week of being in there. Even have the lovely soil mites sharing the fun lol.