... issues and tissues with a touch of the spicy from the spirit hag ...
... what's really going on in your garden ... ewww !
Published on August 25, 2004 By mignuna In Misc

Snail sex. No, this is not about some weird sexual slow-breathing palaver for humans. It’s about sex, snail style. Snails, as in molluscs. Slimy, icky little molluscs ... ew ... but I digress.

The common garden snail, Helia aspersa (native to Europe and also found in California and South America), is a hermaphrodite, meaning that it can assume either a male or female role in reproduction as required. (Yes, of course this story gets better).

Garden snails court from between 15 minutes to six hours by slowly circling each other, touching tentacles, and biting each others lips and genitalia. They punctuate their mating ritual by shooting their partners with a calcified ‘love dart’ produced by the blood engorgement of a special organ housing the ‘dart’.

When the partner touches the ‘darter's’ genitalia, a 'dart' is fired. Now, as snails can detect light and dark, but are otherwise ‘blind’, it is a real case of hit and ms. (pardon my pun). In fact, the majority of these ‘darts’ are consumed (eaten) by the ‘female’ of the union.

Biologists have proven that a 'signal' carried only on some darts prevents the mate from digesting them. The female reproductive tract in snails is hostile to sperm by design, to make it difficult for ‘weak’ sperm to survive, so only the strongest ‘darts’, with their powerful chemical beacon, will survive undigested and fertilise the ‘female’.

Unless the ‘female’ gets a ‘signal’ from the dart, she will digest 99.98 percent of the ‘males’ sperm, leaving fertilisation from ‘poor quality’ sperm a near impossibility.

Wow. Do these snails have genetic survival nailed or what ? .


Comments (Page 1)
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on Aug 25, 2004
Where do u come up with this stuff??????
on Aug 25, 2004
Where do u come up with this stuff??????


i could tell you, h-bomb, but then i'd have to kill you

ok, the boring truth is that i hate snails and there seems to be a lot of them around up here at the moment. i was looking for a natural way to deter them, and trying to find out if they have a 'breeding season' or something, and i found this er, information.

i know this blog is almost too gross for words hehe. but i couldn't help myself. it's not my fault. i'm old !

thanks for your comment

vanessa/mig XX
on Aug 25, 2004
Common table salt deters them, sprinkled around your plants, or sprayed on the leaves in the form of a mild saline solution


ah !. a nice, natural solution. just what i was looking for. excellent !.

It uhmm, melts them.


eww ! lmao. eww eww eww !. that's so gross, sabrina. i'm going to try it tomorrow !. thanks !. hehe


mig XXX
on Aug 25, 2004

the community in which i live attracted waves of immigrants from italy, dalmatia and several other areas of the balkan seacoast (as well as a fair number of norwegians) who brought a number of things with them--most notably the escargot kinda snails, anise and heheheh opium poppies (for the seeds).  without natural predators--except for feet and tires i guess--the snails have flourished here.

being past the age at which such things as big snails might inspire wonder or even idle curiosity, id never considered their sexual side...til i saw the incredible french film 'microcosmos' which includes graphic, although somehow tasteful, snailporn.  

i excerpted this from a review of the movie:

The camera swoops low and creeps over tall grass that has been flattened in a wide swath. On closer examination the grass appears to be coated in a thick slime, which shimmers in the sun as the camera inches forward. The ooze looks like a close cousin of the creature that terrified Steve McQueen in the 1950s. A moment later, the camera catches up to the star of this particular segment of the film Microcosmos--the plump foot of a burgundy snail on its way to an afternoon rendezvous. It meets up with a second snail, and the two hit it off. The fat, wet snails writhe and wriggle in a passionate embrace while a sumptuous operatic score plays in the background, evoking small gasps of delight from the audience.

The musical score in Microcosmos is deliberately designed to provoke viewers into drawing parallels between themselves and the snails and insects.

"When two snails make love, they make love," director Claude Nuridsany said. "It's not another thing. We choose to accompany it with a style of music like opera and at first people laugh a little because it's like a gag. But when the scene goes on little by little, you can see two lovers that are not so different from us."

that--in combination with your excellent and clinically accurate description of the process--provides all the evidence needed to assure snails retain their current position near the top of my personal 'things i'll die before eating' list.

on Aug 25, 2004
i know this blog is almost too gross for words hehe. but i couldn't help myself. it's not my fault. i'm old !


Hey now! I thought we covered this in another blog. You can't be old as long as you're younger than I am.
on Aug 25, 2004
without natural predators--except for feet and tires i guess--the snails have flourished here.


hehe !

The fat, wet snails writhe and wriggle in a passionate embrace while a sumptuous operatic score plays in the background, evoking small gasps of delight from the audience


ewwwww, kingbee, ewwww !

"When two snails make love, they make love," director Claude Nuridsany said. "It's not another thing. We choose to accompany it with a style of music like opera and at first people laugh a little because it's like a gag. But when the scene goes on little by little, you can see two lovers that are not so different from us."


ewwww !. yes they are. love darts ? tee hee.

that--in combination with your excellent and clinically accurate description of the process--provides all the evidence needed to assure snails retain their current position near the top of my personal 'things i'll die before eating' list


yes, i also will always think of 'escargot' as a vehicle with a letter painted on the side . kingbee, your comments are cherished .



Hey now! I thought we covered this in another blog. You can't be old as long as you're younger than I am


yay !. i'm young forever. unless you work out how to reverse time sean, i mean, citahellion hehe


vanessa/mig XX
on Aug 25, 2004
Oh,and after the creature melts away, you can use the empty shells for crafts n such.


Now that was funny.
on Aug 25, 2004
Don't waste them. Saute' them in garlic and add some Marinara sauce. grill some polenta slices, pour the sauce over it and grate on some Parmesan cheese.

mm, good eatin. Had it in Knoxville Tennesse at a restaurant called "The Tuscany". Good to eat, and a wonderful appetizer for those folks that come over and pretend they are food snobs...
on Aug 25, 2004
If your pour some directly on them, you can watch the slow torturous process...takes a little while, but they soon disintigrate into a puddle of gelatinous goo


ooooh, you described that so well, sabrina. i have chills. death to snails !. ahem. pardon me. i mean, thankyou for your advice hehe.

A bit sadistic, perhaps, but hey, you did say you hated 'em, right?


i trod on one few years ago in bare feet. it went all between my toes and it was still moving for a bit. oh yuck !. i can still feel it when i think about it. it was so slimy and cold and ugh!. i have to stop talking about this, but yes, i do hate them. well, i'm more paranoid about treading on 'em. i don't like to wear shoes at home and they're everywhere outside at the moment.

Oh,and after the creature melts away, you can use the empty shells for crafts n such.


Now that was funny.


i throughly agree, nic. sabrina, you are my version of martha stewart. i adore this idea !. i shall make snail earrings !



Don't waste them. Saute' them in garlic and add some Marinara sauce. grill some polenta slices, pour the sauce over it and grate on some Parmesan cheese.


baker, you can cook ?. you know how to cook snails ?. i'm torn here. one one hand, i'm extremely impressed that you have a snail recipe, but on the other, i'd actually have to eat a snail to take advantage of it. you see my dilemma.

mm, good eatin


oh, baker, i'm sorry, i know they breed the snails especially for eating and all, but i just can't imagine doing that. i think it's a'texture' issue for me. (i hate oysters too. but that's a slime thing). and marzipan. i don't know why i thought of that, but i HATE marzipan as well. the stuff is everywhere. nasty, white, impenetrable marzipan.

Good to eat, and a wonderful appetizer for those folks that come over and pretend they are food snobs


good point. that would make for an interesting social observation. pseudo food-snobbery is revealed when faced with a plate of marinated molluscs !.


vanessa/mig XX
on Aug 25, 2004
mignuna,

If you weren't on another continent, I'd come salt it for you. I find it loads of fun!
on Aug 25, 2004
Don't waste them. Saute' them in garlic and add some Marinara sauce. grill some polenta slices, pour the sauce over it and grate on some Parmesan cheese.

mm, good eatin. Had it in Knoxville Tennesse at a restaurant called "The Tuscany". Good to eat, and a wonderful appetizer for those folks that come over and pretend they are food snobs...


Personally, I'm of the opinion that escargot tastes like garlicy boogers, so the recipe has no appeal to me at all. None.

lol
on Aug 25, 2004
mignuna,

If you weren't on another continent, I'd come salt it for you. I find it loads of fun!


ohhhhh. *shudders*. you do this, too, gideon ? hehe. what have i been missing out on all this time ?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that escargot tastes like garlicy boogers, so the recipe has no appeal to me at all. None.


argh !. ugh !. exactly, gideon. boogers. big, brown, slimy, garlicky boogers !. i can't stand it !. it's too revolting. (but perhaps they are the secret to bakers' amazing brain ?... nah, i still couldn't eat one hehe).

thanks for your comment

vanessa/mig XX
on Aug 26, 2004

before you eat them fresh outta your garden, you need to clean their systems of toxins like pesticides.  an elderly woman who lived across the street once explained the process to me--something about putting them into a box of corn starch maybe? (apparently the same strategy applies to chihuahuas using rice rather than corn starch.)  since it seemed highly unlikely i'd ever pursue the project, i really wasnt paying a lot of attention.

on Aug 26, 2004
before you eat them fresh outta your garden, you need to clean their systems of toxins like pesticides


kingbee, i hate to say this to you again, but ewwwwww !

an elderly woman who lived across the street once explained the process to me--something about putting them into a box of corn starch maybe?


you actually knew somebody that DID that ?. for real ? she got snails out of her garden and SHE ATE THEM ?. yuck. at least baker only only ate special 'eating' ones. (i hope, anyway). ewwww. i can't believe it. did she just hop on out into her garden and scoop 'em up all ready for a snack ?. ugh. *pukes*

apparently the same strategy applies to chihuahuas using rice rather than corn starch.


marco has a chihuahua. bwaaaaaa haaaaaa ! marco has a chihuhahua !. (i shouldn't laugh. i gave it to him ! lol)

since it seemed highly unlikely i'd ever pursue the project, i really wasnt paying a lot of attention.


i am so glad to hear that part, king. you know i was worried about hwat was coming, don't you ? tee hee


vanessa/mig XX
on Aug 26, 2004
mig: I have been following this blog and had nothing to add but "eeeewwwww" so I just lurked.

Then I decided maybe I would let you know that I was here and that I think you cover all sorts of topics, including snail nookie, in such an adorable and enjoyable way . . . and "eeeeeewwww".

Thats all.
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