The crunchy noise snails make when you step on 'em.

Here in Monterey we’re having an uncommonly warm, balmy slightly drizzly night. There are snails all over! I keep picking them up & tossing 'em back in the foliage but I still keep stepping on 'em. Ick. Gross. Ew. Ish! I hate that noise they make when you step on 'em. A crunch schmoosh noise. Yuuuck. Can I eat these little buggers? Those nasty French eat 'em. Can I?

True story.
When I first moved to California, I met a lot of high powered folks and they were in a conversation about “escrow”.
Misunderstanding, and being suave, I said, “Isn’t that a fancy name for snails?”

A little information is dangerous.

If you want to eat your garden snails, you need to collect 'em and feed them on cornmeal & water for a while to clean out their systems. This is according to my grandmother who I asked that same question of when I was in elementary school and fascinated with the bazillions of snails inhabiting her garden.

BTW, I’ve always been told that the reason we have snails in North America is because the French brought 'em over and some of the snails escaped! Of course, this is purely anecdotal and no, I don’t have a cite. :wink:

Finally, a really good reason to hate the French.

Snails. <shudder> Icky, nasty things. Where’s my salt shaker?

So we’re talking an aquarium type thing or what? How long do you need to keep them on their diet?

Well I’m not normally a cite hound. If the French did it, I’m willing to believe it.

Well, the noise you get when you jump on the Car snail thing in Contra is

“oooooowwwww!!!”
or
KABLOOEY!

Someone once told us to put snails in a plate of beer, they get drunk…ummmm…no it sort of looked like the beer was like acid on their poor slimy writhing bodies…
We are having the same trouble with caterpillars…they are everywhere and then make an unpleasant pop sound, because if you step just right you force their body contents out of their heads…icky bloody little corpses are littering our sidewalk…
Margo

Yah, an aquarium would be perfect; just keep it covered so they don’t get out, and well ventilated so they don’t cook. I’m not sure of an exact time frame for getting them “clean” but I’d imagine if their poop starts looking like cornmeal, they’re probably getting there. :wink: