. . . and snails and puppy dogs tails

Working in the garden today, gave me a chance to casually introduce the boys to some of the inhabitants of our garden.

 Garden snail

Turning right side up, after we turned it upside down

Deterring any predators, especially humans

Later, we found more information about snails here. We learned that:

* there are many types of snails

* snails have shells

* they can live up to 15 years or some even 25 years

* they hatch from eggs and eat their own egg for calcium to grow the shell

* they take two years to mature

* they love plants and fruits

* they are predated by frogs, snakes and birds (and humans)

* And they look like this on the inside:

(from www.snail-world.com)

When Simeon saw his he asked:  "How could people eat such a thing with all of this inside?" - (Hoe kry mense dit reg om slakke te eet met al hierdie goed aan die binnekant?)

My answer: "That's a good question, and seeing all this, I won't ever eat a snail again."

Other 'nasties' we found on a branch I pruned

 When I told them the caterpillars could sting, Simeon shied away but Joshua came near to have a closer look.

We tried to Google this but it it's a bit more difficult that I thought to identify, should someone know please let me know what kind this is. And most important, should we 'keep' them or kill them.

I hope to do this on a regular basis to broaden their knowledge in an informal way.