There is nothing more interesting for children this summer holiday to make a pet of the land molluscs namely slugs and snails. Keeping a few in a large jar covered with paper with breating holes and feeding them with lettuce or other succulant plants is a very interesting pastime. Slugs have no shell to speak of and can be tickled and you can see the response as if one was coaching a cat or a dog. By searching under logs and your parents or friends compsot heaps many different slugs and snails may be found to be studied. The large Slug Arion ater has some distinct colour froms and in my garden I find the variety called rufus in good numbers. For our large common garden snail Helix aspersa they too can be collected from garden vegetation and you children may be helping with pest control by taking them and rearing them. Try painting the shell different colours using a felt tip pen and locate them throughout the garden for the rest of the year.
Some Snail connoissuers feed them with lettuce for a few weeks to purge the snail of impurities and boil and eat them just like the french who call then "Escargot."
