Giant Snail - Delights and Dangers -Touch or Don't Touch, a Pet or Not? and Photography Tips

Giant African Land Snail in Singapore. Photograph by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The extraordinary things about the snail are:

1 The huge size - which makes it both unusual and easy to photograph.

2 It is not afraid, does not disappear into its shell and so it is easy to photograph.

3 You can see clearly that it has two protrusions from the head, in fact, four, and uses them to feel ahead and cling on.

4 It progresses not just with slime but a kind of platform underneath.

5 When I read about it I discovered that:

a) It can hibernate and live in colder areas of the USA to the north.

b) Because of its voracious appeite it could be a danger to crops.

c) It has huge numbers of offspring up to 200.

d) It can reproduce as a hermaphrodite. Two females can reproduce. One of them changes sex? (So human beings are not the only ones with gender realignment.) Your female snail can reproduce if you get a second snail. You could end up with dozens 'eating you out of house and home'.

I had thought on initially seeing it, 'How cute! What a novelty. I wonder whether I could keep it as a pet? Would it be messy? Is that legal? Would I be endangering it? What would I need to feed it? Do I need a cage? Could it damage fabrics and wooden furniture? Would it catch insects such as mosquitos or cockroaches? It would be a great talking point. If I went overseas, I could just release it back into the wild."

What I did not realise was that not only might I be a danger to this relatively small creature, it could be a danger to me and you.

It is apparently common to Florida and parts of the USA and is well documented as being a risk to owners or handlers. What is the risk? Meningitis from rat lungworm.

Ah - nature red in tooth and claw. Look but don't touch, applies to the living as well as the dead creatures you see in your garden or parks and out in the wild.

Tip For Travel Photographers

Carry a small ruler in your pocket to show the size of items you photograph. Take at least one photo with the ruler and one without it. You might want to:

a) Use the photo with the ruler.

b) Not use the photo but specify the size of the item you photographed in the caption or text box. Say if the creature you photograph is unusually small or large or a typical size but can grow to a certain size or be within a certain range.

Useful Websites

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/10/giant-land-snails-are-on-the-move-and-a-nasty-parasite-is-riding-them-like-a-bus/?

How To Add An Index, Contents Page, Page Number To Travel Notebooks

Problem - How To Keep Order Inside Language Notebooks

I have been making lists of German, Spanish and Italian words in my notebook as I do my daily lessons on Duolingo and add words picked up from other sources such as emails, newspaper articles, Facebook pages and food packaging. However, I now need to find the notebook pages which are only half full, and to use them to revise.

Answers - How To Organize Language Lists

 - Advantages Of Separate Notebooks

You might be wondering why I don't have a separate notebook for each language. I started doing that.  I would do that if I were taking language lessons in a class, instead of only online.

Advantages Of One Notebook

But I soon had a book for German, a book for French, a book for Spanish, Another for Latin, Greek, Welsh. The books cluttered up the working space and it took time stopping to find another book each time I found a new word. It was easier to have them all in one place, one notebook.

Notebook Size and Weight

I would also have to carry six or more notebooks with me on any trip out. The same applies on long travel.

Advantages of Small Notebooks

I soon started having one small, fat, thick notebook. It has a ribbon page marker and an elastic pen holder. It is small enough to go in my shoulder bag, and many jacket pockets.

The advantage of carrying it with me is that I can add words I think of or see or hear during the day.
The problem with taking the notebook out of my home or office is that I might lose it.

Advantages of Large Notebooks

My other book is A5 size and stays at home on the desk or nearby. Being large and brightly coloured, it is easier to find in a hurry on a cluttered desk or side table.

At this point the pages on languages need to be easy to find. They must be separate from other items such as To Do lists, travel directions, lists of websites, comic poems I compose and songs.

How To Number Notebook Pages

I now do what I should have done the day I started the notebook. It's what I have done to notebooks in the past. I write the page numbers on the top right of each right hand page, the odd numbers. Later, if I have the time and energy I will go back and write in the even numbers.

Indexes Hand-written

I can write an index on the back page and / or on the inside back cover.
If you start early in the book's usage history, you can count the number of pages first and leave enough lines for one line per page. I often draw a line down the middle of the index page or fold the page in two vertically to get more words on a page. This applies particularly on the larger A4 size book because the pages are so large. But it also applies to the smaller book because I want to cram in as many words as possible in that compact book before starting another to fill up my dwindling shelf space.

Creating Contents Pages List In A Notebook

Today I discovered another trick for finding space for the contents list. I had run out of space on the inside back cover, the back page and the front page. I closed my notebook and looked down at the blank front cover.  I thought, at least I can write down the subjects on the cover, the contents alphabetically, like I do on the outside of box files, without listing the pages.

I started to write the contents of the first page on the top left. Then I thought, I can make a complete index. The page already has a frame. A divided it into three columns. I counted the pages. Under 100. That meant about 30-page numbers down the left of each column. I listed the numbers, then drew horizontal lines with the aid of a ruler.

I tried to keep the handwriting neat. I wrote in capitals. I wrote slowly. I took care to keep the letters on the line, not floating above and not doing diagonally.

It would be neater to print the contents. When I have time I shall do so. There's nothing stopping me from sticking a neat type-written list on top of my hand-written contents list.

Storing Language Notebooks

Where do I find my latest notebook on languages? Alongside my dictionary of that language. Or in a shoe box or box file labelled with the name of the language.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages.

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Storing Travel Brochures and Video CDs In Shoe Boxes With Labels

Problem
I have a stack of brochures from a trip to Italy but they are creating a clutter. They slide off the table onto the floor. I put them in a plastic bag. Disaster. Too many bags. I'll never be able to find them.

 I pack them in a shoe box. Now I have them neat but I still can't find them.

Answers
Shoe Box Labelled with Pen
1 You can write the name Italy on the end of the shoe box in pen. Yes, I do that. It does not look tidy, organised, professional. Besides, the writing is too small and I still can't find it.

I have not taken the time to do what I was advised by a much-moved mother in Rockville, Maryland. She told me, when moving house, label every box on all six sides, the four sides and the top and bottom. That way, however the boxes are stacked, you can sill see the label from every angle.

I could then use a black felt tip pen. It would not look tidy, even if I used a ruler to keep the bottom of letters straight, drew a faint pencil line an inch above, marked the spacing of the letters with dots.

Better to print. I could print out the word Italy in large black type, by enlarging the font to the largest size allowed. But that takes a lot of ink. I then have to fix the flimsy paper onto the box.

I get out a brochure entitled Umbria to read and put it back down on top of the box. The width is just the right size. I could tear off the cover and stick it down.

I don't like to destroy a brochure - even though I often have two copies of brochures. Besides, I don't have time.

I reach for a long elastic band, the sort you get on parcels held together by the postman. (In the USA you would say mail man). You find elastic bands on the ground everywhere, all over the world. I have seen them in Italy and Singapore. Lets over the whole top. Find another brochure.

My first effort was simply to leave the brochure on top of the box, attached with a big rubber band. That worked very well when the shoe box was on a long table.

But sideways on, the original shoe box name on the lid is a distraction.

My next effort was to look for other items to stick on the sides.

You can also make a collage of travel brochures. All from one country, or from several. This works on a small box, a shoe box.

Of course the answer for a DIY or craft enthusiast is to completely cover the box with a holiday theme. Stick on duplicate photos. (I have loads from America in the late 1900s.) Print pictures from the computer, maybe print from my own photos on the laptop or mobile phone.

Or cover a box with Xmas birthday or gift wrapping paper. Add a window in the centre with the word Italy.

Or cover a box in white and draw a freehand sketch. Add large curly calligraphy of the country name. Make six matching boxes from different states of the USA. Or stack boxes for countries in South America, Europe or Asia, Russia or China and satellite countries.

I hate cardboard boxes. yet they are too good and stiff to throw away. They keep dust off the contents. They group things together. They stack neatly.

For more details on Umbria:
www.umbriatourism.it

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share posts.