damage by snails in the garden live with it

Snail damage in the garden. You can not win, get used it ... This morning was a lovely cool morning, one of the last cold fronts over the western cape (South Africa) before the long hot summer. I stroled through the garden enjoying it for a few moments, then my eyes caught this aloe. The snails had party last night and they were out late on this cool morning having a brunch before they hide for the day.

	"People pay to have snail slime on their skin, I am getting this for free" - I told myself while squashing the snails between my fingers. In case you do not know, it seems the word is going around that snail slime is one of those "proven" remedies for a youthfull skin.

This moorning I took many years off the age of the skin on my hands, but it did not improve the beauty of my hands which were cut and bitten by the sharp teeth of the aloes at the same time. It is not easy to get the snails out between the aloe leaves.

Unbelievable ...this juvenile snail could not have eaten all that much in one sitting, he must be the last one remaining after a party. Rot can set in where the skin of aloes and other succulents is broken. The hole, on the top right side of the photo above must be from the previous party, it dried out well so there is fortunately no danger of rot any more.

	As far as I know these two snails are an endemic snail species. I do not know anything about the identity of snails, you are welcome to help me out there. We see them often along the western coast (South Africa). They climb on the wooden fence poles and sit in a bundle during the dry summer. It seems easy to kill them, but those on the poles are only the tip of the snail-mountain. I have not seen them sitting in bundles on poles where we live, 100 km inland. It might be that they find enough to eat in the gardens all year round. They are not as many as on the coast, but they do a lot of damage all the same.

Is this the delicatessen snail which arrived here from France? I am not tempted to try, but if we would learn to enjoy eating escargot that would solve more than one problem.

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	I feel like doing something to that neck! Something slower than a quick squash between my fingers.