Brown garden snail (Helix aspersa)

Thanks a million to all of you for kind comments the past month, I am stunned at the positivity from everyone! It is highly appreciated!!

We have lots of these in our garden, but, as you all know, it is a real pest! They really ruin you garden if you don?t control them, in our case, the crows help to control them!

It is quite a feast they are having on the roofs of our houses, with the snails! They snatch them up from the plants, fly onto the roof with them, literally throw them on the roof, in order to crack the shell, then the snail rolls down the roof, with the crow following, catching it, flying higher up, repeat the whole ritual, until the shell is completely broken, and then: Feast on it!

They have large thin shells, quite glossy, sculptured with fine wrinkles. It is yellowish with brown spiral bands withy ellow flecks or streaks. They are round to oval, the lip turned back and can measure up to 32 mm in diameter.

They eat vegetables likes cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, bean, beet, brussels sprouts, lettuce, onion, peas, radish, tomato, and turnips.
Flowers like antirrhinum, carnation, chrysanthemum, dahlia, delphinium, hollyhock, larkspur, lilies, and sweet-pea.
Trees like apple, apricot, citrus, peach, and plum. Shrubs like hibiscus, magnolia, and rose.
They normally feed only within the temperature range of 5 to 21°C

Mating requires four to 12 hours. White spherical eggs about 1/8 inch in diameter are deposited in a nest constructed by the snail, which uses its foot to shovel soil upwards. The nest is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep. They lay about 86 eggs at a time which hatch in about two weeks in summer temperatures.

The shells of hatchlings are fragile and translucent.They take about 10 months to mature.