Sunday 24 August 2014

Small

So, after a slow and elaborate mating ritual which involves pressing their moist bodies close up together, rocking to and fro rhythmically and touching tentacles before mutual penetration with a long, hard 'love dart', this is what you get...




It's not that I have giant hands

The tiniest, teeniest, exquisitely perfect, miniature baby snails.

I'm in love.

The hollyhocks and honeysuckle in the garden thrive whilst my snails turn their attention to leaf litter and weeds (ground elder in this case), so they can stay here. Which is what they'll probably do anyway, seeing as garden snails are now known to have strong homing instincts.

14 comments:

  1. They are beautiful but known to cause carnage in our garden. We do all we can to accommodate them but it's an uphill battle - they are winning. Great photos.

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    1. You could try the 'decoy' method - big piles of cuttings, dead leaves, pulled up weeds etc. under my hedge seems to keep them happy and away from other plants a fair bit (but it's probably just as well I don't grow veg...)

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  2. I can see it now a whole new sport....homing snails...people with little boxes taking their homers to the next street and releasing them....let the race begin!

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    1. Perfect! Though it could be a long, slow race... and will mean even more snails in the road to be rescued by The Swede :-)

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  3. The 'racey' first paragraph caught me off guard and made me laugh out loud! I often 'escort' snails across the road when I'm out walking. Why on Earth, when they have a massive field to wander about in all their lives, do they look up and think 'no, actually I'd rather be over there'? Perhaps it's something to do with the grass being literally greener on the other side?

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    1. She always does that...when it starts getting steamy around here you there's gonna be a bug involved...or Ricky Gervais.

      :)

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    2. TS - I guess those snails on the road are on their way back home after a night on the razz...?
      Erik - there are some who might think it's a step too far. I mean, of all the things to get steamy about... Ricky Gervais??!
      (I feel I should explain for anyone new who might stumble upon this that Ricky turns up uninvited in my dreams. Snails are welcome any time)

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  4. I'm with TS: you don't often read about snail on snail action.

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    1. You should check out slug on slug action!

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  5. The lovelife of an average garden mollusc would make Fifty Shades of Grey look, well, pretty grey....fascinating creatures.

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    1. Many thanks for dropping by, bugwoman. I agree, there is so much that goes on in the lives of these 'humble' creatures that it is a constant source of amazement. I'm hooked!

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  6. And because of this I now end up googling "snail sex"... thank you!

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  7. Perhaps you could grow a couple just for them and think of it as snail food!

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