Can anyone please help, I have spent hours searching the web to no avail !

I don't kill our garden snails ( I try to plant more!) never have, but I admit to taking hordes of them "walkies over the woods" when they get a bit too hungry around my pansy's in spring........ I always worry that they have family groups & I split them up though & that gives me a few uncomfortable moments.

Yesterday while planting out dozens of Begonias, I found one sleeping under a leaf & before planting out, I took her & dropped her over the back of the garden where I had dropped at least 8 others in the same half hour. However, just after despatching her "gently!" I tipped up the plant only to find dozens of little eggs ! Despite the fact the garden is a haven for so many, I actually haven't stumbled on a nest for the last couple of years, so wasn't expecting it.

Oh God! now I have split up mother & babies.... I'm not young or agile enough to find her, so carefully took the eggs & put them in the empty pot with new soft soil & laid it on its side in the proximity I dropped mum. Made me feel so bad, haven't stopped thinking about it. I came to the web to search & the only thing that I did find, was that mum must have been sitting above & she leaves a channel for the young to crawl up. Will I have killed them all ? Will they suffocate & not get out of the earth ? Will mum find them? I know they don't hear or see well but will she smell them & sort out an exit for them?

I feel awful ! I won't be back to the garden now until Sunday, im so worried. Everyone laughs, but they are such sweet little creatures & we have enough in our garden to share. I don't want to be cruel ! Maybe if I haven't suffocated them already? I could tip them out again gather them in to one little group & put a straw or something for their escape? Maybe someone who keeps pet snails will know enough & be caring enough to not think me stupid & give some advice.

Please can you help or point me to someone who may. I'm feeling really guilty!

RegardsSamantha Chastelaine[FONT=Impact][SIZE=7][COLOR=gray][B][I] :(

Mother land snails do not have any interest in their babies. They will not protect or otherwise care for them. It's ok if you separated her from the eggs. When the eggs hatch (if in fact, they are eggs), the babies will crawl out on their own unless they are buried too deep. The mother should have buried them at the right depth so try to get close to that. If the soil over them is loose, the babies should have no problem getting out.

I don't think you have to worry too much. They should be okay.

I don't know much about terrestrial snails but maybe someone else will reply to your questions as well.

[B][I][COLOR=gray]Thank you so much, I have been feeling really guilty! We used to find so many nests & so were careful but I have seen none in the last 3-4 years & so was not even thinking. They have to be laying somewhere as at least 2 of our evergreens have dozens & dozens of the tiny tiny babies. I always have horrors cutting it & worst still getting rid of the cuttings, the amount of checking leaves for baby snails & frogs makes it really hard.

I am relieved to know I haven't destroyed a family.

Do you happen to know if they live in groups or are attached in any way? Just that as I said, when they really get at the new petunias, I tend to gather them up & take sometimes 40-50 for a trot across the field & put them in the hedge row there. It always worries me though that I may be splitting up family groups.

Thank you for the info, I feel a bit better now.

Regards Sam

Some snails may live in colonies but I don't think they form emotional attachments to other snails.

:rolleyes:
thank you

I keep garden snails as pets and like Robyn says, they don't really care for their eggs. I've seen a mother actually eat her eggs!