This morning, it seems like the pickings were somewhat slimmer.
Part of this may have to do with the weekday morning time constraints (30 minute time limit). However, it seems like some regions of the yard that were swarming with gastropods over the weekend had only a few wee snails this morning. (It’s possible that there are gastropod hiding places yet to be uncovered. That’s a project for Saturday morning.)
The wee snails may also be a sign that I’m making some progress — the proportion of large snails relative to tiny ones was greatly decreased today. Since snails can’t reproduce until they hit a certain age (and size), if I’ve depleted the ranks of mature snails in the yard, it will take them much longer to replenish their population with baby snail.
I also discovered why the garlic on the edge of my garlic patch looked like it had been sat upon — a large neighborhood cat was sitting on it when I got outside. (The cat clearly understood that s/he wasn’t supposed to be doing that as s/he skedaddled over the fence as soon as we made eye contact.)
Today’s take: 184 snails and slugs (in 30 minutes).
That was not a cat. It was a large furry slug. Try sprinkling it with some of the Holy Salt next time.
The larger snails—albeit not furry slug sized—are now under the remains of the garden excavating a carefully designed series of crisscrossing tunnels. In a day or two, when you go out to commit unsaltable acts of snailicide, you’ll discover a hole where the garden used to be, a large slime trail, a note saying “Thanks for All the Salad!”. Do not follow the slime trail.