Putting your snails in the pen

137. Just before you put your snails in the pen, take out all the grass, the creeping grass and the weeds that may have grown while the food and shelter plants were growing.

Take out all grass, creeping grass and weeds

138. Never put snails in a pen in the morning or during the day when the sun is hot. Always put them in the evening when it is cool. This is when they begin to move about and to eat.

Always put snacks in the pen in the evening

139. If there is no dew and leaves of the plants and the ground are dry, wet them. Items 160 to 165 in this booklet will tell you how.

Wet the plants

140. When you put snails in the pen, put an equal number of them in four different places.

141. In the last booklet you were told that for a 5 x 5 metre pen you would need 150 snails if you use the small kind, and 25 snails if you use the large kind. So, if you need

• 150 snails, put 35 to 40 snails in four places

• 25 snails, put 6 snails in three places and 7 snails in one place.

142. The arrows in the drawing at the top of the next page will show you where to put snails in a 5 x 5 metre pen.

Where to put the snails

Note

When you put snails in a pen, never put them near the fence or in a corner of the fence. If you put them near the fence it is easier for them to get out than it is if you put them near the centre of the pen.

Do not put snails in the corner or near the fence

143. The morning after you have put your snails in the pen, look to see that they have all moved. If any of them have not moved, put them under shelter plants.

144. If any snails die, take them out and put in the same number of new snails.

Take out the dead snails

145. At first your snails will try to crawl out of the pen. During this time, go around the pen each morning and put them back.

146. After about two weeks your snails will become used to their new home and most of them will not try to crawl out.

147. However, it is a good idea, even after the first two weeks, to check from time to time and put back any of the snails that may have got out of the pen.