Population Distribution and the Escargot Ranch

Herro,

When I discovered that the snails in my locale are not in fact indigenous but rather are the descendents of escaped “petit gris”, a famous snail imported from France in the 1850’s during the gold rush, I decided I needed to get off the “Escargot Grid”. Sidenote: For those of you who haven’t tried Escargot, it’s very good. For those of you who don’t like it, it’s probably because of the texture, try ordering them chopped up.

Anyway, what I decided to do specifically was convert my office parking lot into a free range Escargot ranch. I get to work very early in the morning, and there are many snails in the parking lot; they retreat as it gets warmer to the bushes and shrubs around here. While I plan to harvest these guys, I don’t want to grab them all, as it takes over a year to get to the right size, so I plan on trying a sustainable harvest system, and for this, I need to know the approximate adult population.

What I decided to one morning was bring out the liquid paper and number 20 of them. Every day since then, in the morning, I go outside on my break, count the total number of adult snails in the parking lot, and note how many of them are numbered. I then enter this into a spreadsheet I’m keeping. A typical entry will look like this

Date Total Numbered Population
3/2/2005 33 7 94

Where Total is the number of snails in the parking lot, numbered is the amount that are numbered with the liquid paper, and population is my guess at the total adult population, based on 20/numbered*total.

I’ve hit the limit of my statistical analysis in that I’ve noticed of late, the amount of “numbered” snails is dropping daily. Some are hit by cars, some move away, some die naturally, and goddamnit I stepped on “11” today (which really pissed me off, as he liked to hang out with me by the ashtray).

What I could use some help with is figuring out how to factor in that eventually all 20 numbered snails will disappear, and I’ll have no data to keep track of my ranch. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can continue my research given the steady decline of the numbered populations?

Thanks for any help

Taco Rubio
King of the Paved Frontier

*makes a quick call to SAPT (Snails Are People Too) and the SSPA (Snails and Slugs Protection Agency)*

Ok Taco..drop that snail and step away slowly...


Seriously tough..I think you've reached a new peak in offbeat (insane) humor! Too friggin funny!

I can't answer your statistical question but you so need to vist Happy Snails. Com. Check it out at :http://www.happysnails.com/happysnails/


Happy Snailing.


.

David,

Not one thing in this is made up.

"The edible European Brown Snail or Brown Garden Snail (Helix asperas), is the common garden snail or French "Escargot" which is considered a pest in gardens and yards all over the country, especially in California. Also known in France as the Petit Gris or Vineyard snail, it was probably first brought to the North American continent about 1850. "

and I got the idea here.

Finally, I'm have a much bigger ranch here than I would at home.

Thanks!

Yeah i've been to that site.....I've done a _lot_ of research on this stuff, you must trust me. My problem is the statistical end of it; I'll be really sore if I take to many and fekk up the ranch.

Here's another site on snail rearing. You are also free to have any you find in my yard. You eating them is better than me using pesticides.

I would like to thank Ted Younglove, of the U.C. Riverside's statistics department, for the following:

1) Having a form in which the public may ask a statistician questions
2) Replying in under an hour
3) Explaining that what I was looking for was Hypergeometric Distribution
4) Not casting dispariging remarks about the reason I was asking.

Huzzah for people who do stuff just because they are nice !

I recommend little triangle shaped pieces of toast with green garlic butter an dlittle two pronged forks that are oh so cute.

I had oysters last night.

I love escargot...never chop it pull the lil bastards out whole mmmmmm. Perhaps you can put a radio controlled beacon on each snail. Either way let me know when its time to dine

take some home and start your own herd.

I have some at home, but I'm saving them for an emergency...plus, i can't know the neighbors don't use snailbait. Also, this is a much bigger ranch, and if i'm here anyway in the early morning, I should be taking advantage of my surroundings.

God I so want to see Taco stalking the snails and attaching little tags to their..umm..ears..?

"rearing" snails?
Dont you have a shitload of them appearing every spring already?
We just go out into the fields and pick them. Portuguese people eat snails by the kilogram.
I used to eat them when I was a kid, but these days I think it's a little icky.
Everyone laughs at me for being squeamish. You can't go anywhere in portugal without seeing restaurants advertising their snails. Sometimes they even have a giant bag of living snails right outside them. Here's what a typical dish looks like. You get them out with a toothpick, usually, or a special corkscrew fork thingy if you're FANCY.

After a couple more emails from Mr. Younglove, and some math, I'm very happy to report that I can safely remove 2 dozen snails per month (enough for two meals or 4 appetizers) without impacting the long term success of my ranch.

Mr. Younglove pointed out that UC Riverside's 'ask a statistician' program gets a couple of questions a week, and would love to have more. The Statistics grad students answer them and it's very good practice for them.

So, following his wishes, as he's such a nice guy, I'll post the link. If you have any real world statistics questions, they're happy to answer them

Ask a Statistician!

Yeah but Eggy, you need to realize not all parts of the US have suitable snails to pick. Hell, I wouldn't but for some French guys 150 years ago who thought they'd make a killing selling them to gold rush miners.

And you don't have to tell me, I'm portuguese

also, those aren't the ones we get here, we get these:

You are brilliant.

hardly. Yesterday I yelled at a butterfly that landed on my new basil plant, not thinking that a) butterflies don't eat basil and b) butterflies don't have ears.

wait....... like you just go out in the field and pick up a snail and slurp it out of the shell raw? i respect cultural differences but that is nasty ass. i could almost understand the people who do that with oysters. actually i can't. fire was invented for a reason.

bwahahaha! hehe that made my day. i can just see somebody putting their face down right by a butterfly and yelling "FUCK YOU!!!!"

Snail Farms look really cool! Do you know how much area per snail they need Taco?

I had a worm farm, no, wasn't raising them for food, I released them in different parts of my garden and I also gave them to other gardeners.

I also had a bat house that bats actually moved into.

I love watching things like that. Though with the snails, I like them so much I'd probably cook a few - I just have to make sure I don't name them or I won't be able to.

Oh and butterflies won't eat your basil, nor will their caterpillars, it seems they don't like the smell of the leaves. Though they will fly around the flowers from the plant when it's blooming and cross pollinate so they are really very helpful.

So stop yelling at the butterflies.

You can yell at the damn nematodes though. http://nematode.unl.edu/wormgen.htm.

Those suckers have destroyed every tomato plant that I've ever tried to grow here in Florida.

while I abhor the thought of pen-raising snails, as I find it unethical to our shell bound allies, I did look it up for you Rose.

The U.S. Government has evidently diverted some black-helicopter money toward a phamphlet called, appropriately, Raising Snails. It says that in pen raised snails, you don't want more than no more than 8 per square foot (for raising) or 8 per square meter (for breeding), see Population Density for further details.

Not much for Sushi or Sashimi are you?

I make it more simple. I draw the line at eating any form of non-plant non-fungus life without an evolved skeletal structure, but make an exception for shrimp, and only shrimp. I love cockroaches of the sea!

Thanks for the link Taco.

This is what I had in mind:

Pens with gardens: An alternate method is to make a square pen with a 10-foot-square garden in it. Plant about six crops, e.g., nettles and artichokes, inside the pen. The snails choose what they want to eat. If it has not rained, turn sprinklers on for about 15 minutes at dusk, unless the snails are dormant. A disadvantage to this method is that, if the snails are not mature at the end of the year, it is difficult to replant fresh plant crops in the pens.

I have a great spot that is about 12 x 12 square at the new house we will be moving into where I could put this and I think it would be cool. Also, the snails would not be too confined then. I'm not keen on confining them to a standard pen either.

.

oh that'd work. Be sure to read the part about copper, I tested it and it works....I also have a friend who keeps snails out of her herb garden simply by surrounding it with pennies.

Good luck, keep us posted on how it goes!

hmm....i wonder if i could raise shrimp in the bathtub.....