A terrible loss

The dry season had come and gone. The snails survived. The ants and earthworms didn't do much harm to the snails but some thing worse than all these, attacked the snails. The snails laid eggs, I had thousands of snail eggs all over the snail house. The eggs hatched and their babies were everywhere. It looked like I  would have millions of snails very soon but then the real enemies of the snail attacked.

Very tiny insects were every where in the snail pen. These insects where so very tiny that you really have to look closely to see them. Initially I thought they were normal but when I noticed that the newly hatched snails could barely survive, then I knew that the situation was critical. I partitioned the snail house but it didn't work. They were just every where. All the snails whether big or small  had this tiny monsters all over them.  I wouldn't save them, the babies were the most hit. The babies died in thousands just as they hatched. Any baby shell you picked up was empty eaten up by the tiny monsters. The monsters occupied every empty shell. I felt sad and discouraged.  I did everything within my power to save them but couldn't.

These tiny insects I noticed were easily blown away by air and they were so many of them in the soil on which the snails live. So I removed and washed the big snails put them into another snail pen. The soil with the snail eggs in it and the newly hatched snails I threw into the bush. I left the snail house in the sun for about 3 days then treated it with insecticide.

So I lost all the eggs and the babies. If  they survive in the bush then I would probably have them back

The failed harvest

Despite the unfavourable dry seasons to my surprise we picked five snails as soon as the first rain fell.

It took an effort to get my family to agree to harvest the snails. Happily I washed and cleaned the snails and prepared them for cooking as a special delicacy during Christmas. At this time my husband traveled. I decided to wait for his return. Here is a picture of the harvested snails

Finally upon his arrival, we sought his opinion concerning the snails. He didn't agree with us. so the snails were sent back into the snail pen.  I had thought of a million and one ways I would have made a dish of the snails, yes I wanted to cook some with green plantain and vegetables, I wanted to fry some with carrot and green peas and lots of garlic but now no snail dish for me yet.

However there is a problem with the snails; yes they lay hundreds of eggs and hatch them but baby snails don't survive. Only a few of them make it. What can I do?

The unfavourable dry seasons

The dry seasons in Nigeria, particularly the harmattan  season was not favourable for the snails at all.Many baby snails died. At least 10 of them must have died. I felt really bad. The little creature were dieing helplessly in the snail pen.

I began to regret, I wish I hadn't started at all. I couldn't return them to their natural habitat. The condition out there was even more harsh than it was in the snail pen. The leaves had all dried. The ground was as hard as rocks. The snails seemed doom. The nights, at this time was so cold the snails dug deep into the ground for warmth. The day time  was so dry. Many of them estivated. I felt sad. They didn't come out to play or eat. I feared they would all die. Oh what a tragedy!

The dry season is almost over now. The Archatina marginata snails have remained buried in the soil, most times when I dig them out I find they had estivated then they shed the covering and within two days they are back inside the soil. The Archatina fulica snails are more rugged, only few of them estivated.

There is another problem in the snail house. Sugar ants are beginning to invade the snail house. I don't know if it has to do with the dry season too. Killing them manually don't seem to be working. They just won't go away. Changing the soil in the snail house is not an option because the soil is full of tiny eggs and babies. Ants and earth worms won't let the snails be. Oh what terrible contenders!

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