I wasn’t sure how to title this actually but I’ll explain. A couple of weeks ago I was on holiday and I parked my car at a nature reserve on a drizzly day and the place was absolutely crawling with snails. Thousands of snails. They were everywhere in large groups and you had to be careful not to step on them. Of course I logged the sightings White Italian Snail and on further research I found out the species is invasive, although no one seems concerned about this. Today we had a bit of rain and I found one crawling on the car. I’m now back home a couple of hundred miles away with no known colonies anywhere near here. Our climate is too cold for them to survive so I’m not worried that I’ve introduced them here though.
The question though is do I log the sighting from my house? The snail is currently in jail and won’t be released but it was technically a wild sighting. It could be useful data in terms of understanding the spread of the species if I annotate the whole story but otherwise it might just be annoying for someone trying to get an idea of the current breeding range. I’ve noticed a couple of similar one off sightings have been logged though.
I think you can take the photos from your house, taking care to include as many angles as possible (there is a tutorial thread in the forum related to this), and then log the location as the place you first found it.
I recommend including in the “notes” section the paragraphs you used here explaining the sighting.
As I understand it, the snail counts as ‘wild’ so long as it got where it is (your house) without humans deliberately putting it there. In the same way that rats who were accidentally carried on ships count as ‘wild’ when they land on some previously rat-free island. So I would upload the observation with a note explaining what happened.
I’d log it, absolutely, this data is invaluable for conservation and species control purposes.
I would not however, lose a wink of sleep over anything invasive in area, let alone ever try to control their distribution or numbers whatsoever, unless it’s your job as a professional.
By “jailing” the species or the like, you could actually be assisting them, rather than hindering their conquest.
More annotations!! siempre!!
There is an observation field called “range anomaly” which I’ve seen used to explain accidental adventives a few times, such as transport in goods or vehicles.
I’d log something like this personally - it got there without deliberate human activity.
Absolutely, this is a very important type of observation. Mark the location as your house and put in the notes where it came from. This is one way invasive species spread so knowing these snails can spread long distances by car is important.
Thanks all. I’ll log it as directed and make sure to note the assumed origin as well.
I really appreciate the care and attention to detail that you are giving this matter. Logging an observation of the snail at your house would seem appropriate but, as others have said, with explanatory notes as to its origin, status (in jail), etc.
I went through a similar routine when I discovered a new wild petunia (Ruellia sp.) for my neighborhood, only to realize that I had accidentally introduced it myself! I documented its occurrence and wrote a journal entry about the event.
If we insist on using that term, why not just euthanize the poor creature? It didn’t do anything to deserve jail.
Snail jail just had a pleasing alliteration but I think it’s legally, and morally, wrong to release it. I looked into euthanasia techniques and the humane method seems to be to give them a drink of beer before dropping them into neat rubbing alcohol. This seems to be an approved method used in scientific research. There are certainly worse ways to go.
In some states, it is also legally wrong to keep phytophagous snails.
Isn’t that because they’re invasive or endangered though? I’m not aware of any regulations on snail ownership in the UK though.
Invasive or potentially invasive. These are states that have learned from the Giant African Snail problem; by prohibiting heliciculture altogether, they seek to prevent any snail from accidentally becoming invasive. North Carolina is one of these states.
Hawaii has laws against keeping local snails I think. There’s an interesting lecture on Youtube about the mass extinction of land snails there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcl9-Njn-sA&t=2962s
I’ve actually got a Giant African Snail here at the moment after a friend gave us an egg from one of their snails. The growth rate is astounding.
I had a very similar experience. I found a Cuban Treefrog on one of my work trucks in Georgia. Previously, I had the work truck in Florida where Cuban Treefrogs are quite common (invasive). Since he had been living in the wilds of Georgia for at least a month, I marked him at the location where found (and removed him from the wild).
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.