What kind of snails can you farm?

18. The kind of snails that you can farm are snails that live on land, and there are many kinds of land snails that are good to eat.

19. However, some kinds of land snails are not good to eat and they may even make you very, very sick.

20. So, you must be very careful when you choose snails to farm. If you are not sure that a snail is good to eat, do not use it.

Do not use snail unless you are sure it is good to eat

21. Now look at the drawings on pages 8 to 11 and you will see four kinds of good snails that live in different places.

22. You may be able to find one of these kinds of snails where you live. Notice that two of them are small and two of them are large.

23. The smaller kinds of snails, shown on pages 8 and 9, can often be found in places where part of the year is warm and part of the year is cold.

24. The larger kinds of snails, shown on pages 10 and 11, can often be found in places where it is warm all year round.

Helix pomatia

This kind of small snail

1 can be found in places where part of the year is warm and part of the year is cold

2 weighs from 15 to 25 grams and measures from 40 to 50 millimetres

3 has a strong shell which is pale brown and off- white

4 grows to full size in two to three years if it is well fed

5 lays from 30 to 50 eggs each growing season

Helix Pomatia - 30 to 50 small eggs

Helix aspersa

This kind of small snail

1 can often be found in places where part of the year is warm and part of the year is cold

2 weighs from 4 to 20 grams and measures from 30 to 45 millimetres

3 has a weak shell with broken stripes which are light brown to black

4 grows to full size in one year if it is well fed

5 lays from 40 to 170 eggs one to three times each growing season

Helix aspersa - 40 to 170 small eggs

Achatina achatina

This kind of large snail

1 can often be found in places where it is warm all year round

2 weighs from 150 to 200 grams or more and measures from 90 to 130 millimetres

3 has a very strong brown shell

4 grows to full size in two years if it is well fed

5 lays from 100 to 300 eggs one to two times each growing season

Achatina achatina - 100 to 300 small eggs

Archchatina marginata

This kind of large snail

1 can often be found in places where it is warm all year round

2 weighs from 150 to 200 grams or more and measures from 90 to 130 millimetres

3 has a very strong brown shell

4 grows to full size in two years if it is well fed

5 lays from five to ten eggs four to eight times each growing season

Archchatina marginata - five to ten large eggs

25. If you cannot get one of these snails, you may be able to get others very much like them where you live.

26. There are many other kinds of good snails. There may even be several kinds of good snails that are eaten where you live.

27. If snails are eaten where you live, you can farm one of these. Then you will be sure that it is good to eat.