a peek inside the fishbowl

21 May, 2013

When snails infiltrate your garden

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy

… it goes without saying that you should host a snail race. There’s nothing to it, really, and it offers a bit of diversion when you’re trying to get some yard work done.

  1. 1) Collect the participants. Use a bucket if you’re squeamish.
  2. 2) Use chalk to draw your “track.” It need not be complicated. Or long.
  3. 3) Place your bets.
  4. 4) Sit back and watch.

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It was a ruckus, a slimy free-for-all as they, er, rushed off in all directions as fast, er, as quickly as they could. It was quite a sight. There were brawls! (Or possibly romance, we couldn’t tell.)

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And we witnessed illegal shell tampering!

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It was sheer madness and mayhem, with no end of brutal violence! (Or possibly hugging, we couldn’t tell.)

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Utterly, silent, CHAOS.

In hindsight I wish we had taken the time to design little numbers for each of the shells. We could have made race bibs out of post-it notes!

A pair of snails

Snails with race bibs

Now THAT would have been cool.

To be honest, I’m not even sure who was declared the winner. I didn’t wait around long enough to see the end of the race.


2 Responses to "When snails infiltrate your garden"

1 | Kim

May 21st, 2013 at 11:29 am

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What fun! This made me smile:-)

2 | Beverley

May 21st, 2013 at 1:12 pm

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Too funny! This post reminds me of our garden in Tsawwassen BC where we had many many many snails! One year my husband bought some pink nail polish – the kind that is not harmful – and painted numbers on their shells. It was really interesting to track them. And it was a great teaching moment for our young neighbours. They used to return the numbered ones to us!

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  • sam: Great article. This is very insightful. Thanks for sharing
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My name is Andrea and I live in Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Sunny who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. During the day I work as a freelance writer. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

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