Having evidently exhausted the Biblical plagues, it was definitely time for something new... snails!
Millions of them. Everywhere. Evidently that poor, distraught woman I crossed paths with back in April was a harbinger of things to come.
No one seems to know why we're under siege. Probably from the above average rainfall we've had this year. Whatever the reason they've been a major nuisance for the past month. In the pre-dawn morning, when I take the dogs out, the front lawn in nothing but an undulating sea of them. They slowly disappear once the sun comes out, going where I haven't a clue. But by evening they're back.
At first I tried to take a zen, more Buddhist approach to them. They're God's creatures too, after all. Now I just don't care. I actually took some sadistic pleasure in mowing the lawn on Sunday, zigzagging across the lawn in an act of snail genocide. We've tried snail poison, but it seems to have no effect. Like all pests here, they've probably become resistant to all the pesticide that's regularly dumped on the city. They've... evolved.
The worst part is now the dogs have taken an interest in them. Not eating them, not anymore. They learned that lesson last week, the hard way. I caught them both munching on them when I let them out in the morning, and they were not happy campers for the rest of the day. Now they just hunt them down and snatch them and toss them around. And they lick them. Why? Who knows. Maybe it's like licking certain toads and frogs. Maybe they get a little high. More power to them if that's the case. The way this week is going maybe I'll give it a shot. Anything to dull the pain.
At any rate, it's probably a temporary phenomenon. The forecast for next week is for more seasonal, thermonuclear temperatures and I'm guessing that will be the end of them.
