Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Snails!

I stopped by the seed farm to plant some new varieties of taro and found several unwelcomed guests enjoying themselves in the taro patch. African snails. Yuck! It's been lightly raining there this past week, so the snails are enjoying the resort like ambiance. So I busted up their little paradise, scooping up everyone I saw. 21 of the buggahs. 

African snails are an invasive here. In plain words, they don't belong. And they can do a lot of damage. I surely don't need them in my gardens. 

These particular snails will become chicken food. They will be thrown into the boiling pot of food scraps. I cook them to prevent the chickens from picking up any parasites from the snails. Besides, the hens don't like them raw but will gobble them down if cooked. The shells are rather thin and easy to crush, so they'll be consumed by the chickens too. Zero waste. 

2 comments:

  1. So Akamai! You avoid the parasite risk, you add calcium and grit, extra protein, and the snails lose population. I found some of those snails to be tennis ball sized in the cliff-hang orchard for the mango, fig, and citrus trees. Ugh!

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  2. Tennis ball size! Yikes! And I thought mine were big. I don't know if these snails are edible for humans, but even if they were, I don't know if I could get past the gross factor. But if I were starving, I'd most likely eat them. Luckily the hens don't see anything gross in them, and since I like their eggs, the girls can keep the snails on their own plate. One thing about the snails, they're less gross to pick up than the slugs, and easier too. on Snails!

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