Slinging Snails.

after months of denial, i finally admitted to myself that the reason none of my rainlilies were blooming was that they were being eaten by snails.

i've always thought snails were kind of cute and the knowledge that they were devouring the rainlily buds as they emerged was hard to accept. however, after a very rainy spring and no rainlily blooms whatsoever, i knew i had to do something.

i have no problem picking snails up, but i absolutely, positively cannot stand squashing bugs / snails / worms / whatever. i can't step on them and i certainly can't squash them with my fingers (gloves or no gloves). i'm also not keen on baits, traps or introducing decollate snails to eat the rainlily eating snails.

so i started slinging snails at the fence.

the idea is that the shells smash against the wood and the snails perish. it's probably a gruesome death and i will probably come back in a future life as a doomed snail. actually, i think most of the snails survive because i have a really lousy throwing arm and throwing snails (especially small ones) is sort of like trying to throw whiffle balls. i suspect most of the snails are just being forcefully relocated to other areas of the yard, so i try not to throw them towards plants i particularly like. i also try to be a good neighbor and not throw too many of them over the fence into the neighboring yards.

since i began my snail slinging program about four weeks ago the rainlilies in the island bed have been in almost continual bloom and the snail population is markedly lower (at least in that part of the yard).

i don't know what i'll do in the long run. i'm partial to the rainlilies, but i'm not going to patrol the snails indefinitely.