Dealing with snails in their shells

When I first started reading about snails, I discovered this book, "The Collector's Manual of British Land and Freshwater Shells" by Lionel Ernest Adams. It was written in 1896. It hasn't got up-to-date taxonomy or keys, but I like it very much because I warmed immediately to Mr Adams. He says in his introduction:

It may sound a bit batty but I really do hope that's something you'll take with you from this assignment - yes you'll have a new skill and a mark towards your degree, but maybe you'll also be developing a life-long interest in the nature around you, and find that that interest supports your mental wellbeing in the future.

But anyway. Lionel Adams has plenty of advice that still stands about searching for specimens, and I encourage you to read it. I think he would have been jealous of today's range of useful plastic pots. He has some very eccentric stories about leaving snails under his tongue and completely forgetting about them. He goes on:

"Any one who has tried it knows how difficult it is to get boiling water to clean the shells at night in an hotel or lodging-house, and even if this be forthcoming, how impossible it is to carry on operations in peace and quietness. To meet this difficulty I have a small spirit lamp with a folding tripod stand [...] There is, however, sometimes a difficulty in the disposal of the boiled corpses. My usual plan is to wait for a lull in the traffic and carefully empty them out of the window. This plan is not perfect, I must admit, for, in spite of all reasonable care, this operation has on several occasions given rise to much profanity in the street below."

Immersion in boiling water remains the advice for extracting snails in modern guides. Mr Adams recommends leaving larger specimens in for half a minute, but not leaving small species in for more than a few seconds, or the bodies snap and get stuck. He suggests using a bent piece of wire or pin to extract the fragments. This is all on pages 10 and 11.

I've also read about using microwaves. I'm sure Mr Adams would think this a brilliant development. But unless you've got a spare microwave I do not recommend it - I've no idea what will happen. It's difficult enough trying to share a kitchen with other students and this is not going to endear you to them. Regardless, here's the paper.  But don't say I told you to do it.

All this is clearly going to involve Death (and you may like to read Mark Telfer's page about beetles if you'd like some reasoned justification for this). But if you're not keen to despatch molluscs, you may still find enough empty specimens to make an excellent collection.

(Return to the main mollusc page)