When
tiny snails showed up on my garden vegetables last summer, it puzzled me. These
were totally unfamiliar and certainly unexpected. My thoughts immediately
turned to zebra mussels, those exotic mussels that found their way into the Great Lakes and now pose a menace to native flora and
fauna. Was there a parallel with these snails?
On
the other hand, I was sure that the snails were just a bumper crop of some
native species. Reason dictated that the snails were responding to an early
spring and also to frequent rainfall of the summer. But in this case, it looks
as though reason was wrong.
The
tiny (100 could fit in a teaspoon, with room to spare) snails proliferated and in
the case of my garden, succeeded in destroying pounds of chard, lettuce and
broccoli. They even defoliated my carrots, although they appeared to dislike
parsnip tops. This was a true plague.
All
the same, I thought that the snail invasion was probably confined to the
Mid-Coast area. Wrong again. According to University
of Maine Cooperative Extension , these
pesky snails showed up all over Maine
Everyone
pretty much agrees that the snails are a species of ambersnail, but exactly
which species remains a mystery. Some suggest that the snails may be an exotic
species, introduced by some unknown means. If that’s the case, then a
recurrence of last summer’s snail eruption seems likely. Even worse, no one as
of yet has figured out a practical means of controlling the snails.
Our
great hope lies in the lingering snowpack of early spring and also, the lengthy
time last winter when we had continual sub-freezing temperatures, but no snow
cover. This allowed frost to penetrate deeper than usual.
Anyway,
since snails (perhaps not all snails, I’m no snail expert) spend winters
hibernating in underground burrows, deep-penetrating frost last winter may have
killed them. If not, we may be in for a rough ride this summer.
You sir are awesome
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