Breeding/wild Caught, Snails

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I just saw this ad whilst looking for something totally unrelated... If anyone is chasing snails for blue or pink tongues. Might be worth investigating.
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/glass-house-mountains/reptiles-amphibians/reptile-food/1165837268

 

[Bluetongue1]

For several years I was unable to sleep at night and I would often take the dog for a walk at the most ungodly hours. What I observed was that even in dry weather, one to several hours after it got dark, snails (and slugs) would emerge from garden beds and move out onto lawns, some travelling up to 10m or more. Virtually every lawn, regardless of whether it was well tended or not, would have at least a dozen or more snails on it. The odd lawn that had none or few, clearly used pellets. At first light the snails would begin to make their way back towards the garden beds. So this would be the ideal time to collect them without having to wait until it rains.

I collect hundreds of garden snails from my garden after each time it rains and put them in a plastic container and freeze them in the freezer. I give them to a lady who keeps pink tongues, once out of the freezer, the snails thaw and become active again. I never knew that until she told me to collect them for her and freeze them.

That was a revelation to me. It turns out that their blood contains an antifreeze – lowering the freeing point of their body fluids. Death from freezing is the result of cell fluids forming ice crystals which puncture/rupture cell membranes. So no ice crystals, no death. I was aware of other animals that that utilise this, but not snails. Thanks Kev.

I collect snails from my garden too, but I keep them for a couple weeks to make sure that they haven't injested any poison, or have any parasites.
Maybe I'm just being overly cautious lol

Quarantining snails for two weeks or even a month will not necessarily get rid of internal parasites, if present. Fortunately, it seems that the Rat Lungworm parasite is only able to infect mammals and not reptiles. As for snails that have ingested poison pellets containing metaldehyde or methiocarb, they can be expected to die within a matter of hours, while those ingesting pellets using EDTA Complex take a bit longer but this is much less toxic to other organisms. It takes about three days for the gut contents of snails to pass out, so I reckon one week of quarantine should be more than ample.

 

[ronhalling]

Please correct me if i am wrong but isn't Agapanthus a noxious weed in NSW and VIC and therefore sprayed with poison to get rid of it by the local councils.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling-


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[Flaviemys purvisi]

Please correct me if i am wrong but isn't Agapanthus a noxious weed in NSW and VIC and therefore sprayed with poison to get rid of it by the local councils.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling-


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The local councils actually spray and do a bit down south?? Since the local councils were amalgamated up here, the don't do s***t anymore. It was common sight to see them out every day once, mowing the nature strips, parks, tending to gardens in all the local round-a-bouts etc, etc.. Nowadays... the only time I see any council activity is every Monday morning when my wheelie bins get emptied.

I find most of the snails in my garden bed tend to congregate heavily amongst the bromeliads.