Wet Walks

Monsoon season has been going on, and will continue until the end of June. Matthew and I have a picked up a new hobby. After a fresh rainfall we go out for a walk and we look for snails. It sounds weird, I know. It was initiated when we went out for a walk and happen to stumble upon a ton of snails just hanging around on the side of the road near some foliage. It was kind of interesting watching them slowing move along the street, or how they panick and shrivel back into their shells when you get too close.

Eventually, we started actively looking for them after it had rained. It's pretty fun, if you can believe it. There are certain spots they like to hang around, and some of them are so ginormous it's crazy. Sometimes we find slugs as well, but at first glance they look like snails who are missing their shells, and the other only difference are the antennae eyeball things that the snails have; they don't exist on the slugs. But they are the same colour as each other. Once, there was a worm nearby, Matthew had flipped the slug over using a leaf to see the underneath. Then he flipped it back over and it landed ontop of the worm. The worm died! He flipped the slug back over and you could see some weird little leg things that grab the worm and all of a sudden it stopped moving. Matthew is terrible.

We saw a huge snail, I swear it was the king snail of their massive colony of one hundred or so (I am not sure about there living habits; I don't think they have colonies like ants though). It was crossing the street, and Matthew wanted to know how powerful their suction grip to the ground was so he tried to pick it up. It didn't work. They suction their bodies to the ground pretty well. I am sure it is possible to remove them, but if Matthew pulled any harder he might have seriously injured or killed the snail. So he left it at that.

We have also found very tiny snails that are so small you mistake them for tiny stones or gravel. Only upon a closer look do you realize they are snails. We took a bicycle path on our walk one night and I heard some crunching noises. I just had to turn on the light on my phone. And to my horror, I was stepping on those tiny little helpless snails! There were thousands of them along the pathway; it was insane! I think I murdered so many of them on that walk I can't possibly redeem my soul. Too bad. But those little suckers can move fast! It's impressive, but unfortunately they just can't move fast enough to get out of the way of a giant foot coming down.

I had some pictures, they were on Matthew's tablet but it broke and we have lost them. The next time is rains I shall go out searching and post some pictures.