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Almost completely irrelevant, but I was astonished one day as I walked through the outskirts of Dallas: there was a yard nearly at eye level with a retaining wa

Almost completely irrelevant, but I was astonished one day as I walked through the outskirts of Dallas: there was a yard nearly at eye level with a retaining wall, and the grass was overflowing with snails. I don’t know how many times in my life I’ve actually seen a snail outside of water, it’s very rare for me, but this was effectively an infestation. Surreal.

originalvichy 2y ago
Funnily enough I have never seen a snail in water.
sangnoir 2y ago
In many places in Texas, the soil can ruin foundations of single-storey buildings if allowed to cycle between wet and dry. To overcome this, watering the foundation is a requirement to maintain a baseline soil humidity level. Snails thrive in damp conditions.
- mjh2539 2y ago
  This is mostly a myth. It's impossible to actually keep only the soil underneath one's home a consistent degree of wet. If you water the soil under your house, the water eventually gets sucked out by capillary action to all of the dry parts of your lawn (and your neighbors lawn). It would only work if everyone watered EVERYWHERE, by a uniform amount.
  - macintux 2y ago
    The concept seemed unsustainable to me, thanks for the follow-up.
pvaldes 2y ago
Some snails join to aestivate. They climb grasses to take advantage of the cooling effect of the breeze, search protection on numbers and jail itselves on a protective membrane to sleep during the hotter days.
munificent 2y ago
> I don’t know how many times in my life I’ve actually seen a snail outside of water Probably depends a lot on where you live. I've lived in several US states and climates and snails were fairly common in most of them, of a variety of species. I was visiting Irvine California once. I was working back from work around sunset and on the sidewalk under a streetlight were hundreds of snails. I've never seen them congregate like that before.

originalvichy 2y ago

Funnily enough I have never seen a snail in water.

sangnoir 2y ago

In many places in Texas, the soil can ruin foundations of single-storey buildings if allowed to cycle between wet and dry. To overcome this, watering the foundation is a requirement to maintain a baseline soil humidity level. Snails thrive in damp conditions.

mjh2539 2y ago
This is mostly a myth. It's impossible to actually keep only the soil underneath one's home a consistent degree of wet. If you water the soil under your house, the water eventually gets sucked out by capillary action to all of the dry parts of your lawn (and your neighbors lawn). It would only work if everyone watered EVERYWHERE, by a uniform amount.
- macintux 2y ago
  The concept seemed unsustainable to me, thanks for the follow-up.

pvaldes 2y ago

Some snails join to aestivate. They climb grasses to take advantage of the cooling effect of the breeze, search protection on numbers and jail itselves on a protective membrane to sleep during the hotter days.

munificent 2y ago

> I don’t know how many times in my life I’ve actually seen a snail outside of water Probably depends a lot on where you live. I've lived in several US states and climates and snails were fairly common in most of them, of a variety of species. I was visiting Irvine California once. I was working back from work around sunset and on the sidewalk under a streetlight were hundreds of snails. I've never seen them congregate like that before.