![]() The immune system fights the infection with high fever. They may burrow into the brain itself, causing high pressure in the fluid of the brain and spinal column and damaging brain tissue. The worms initially lodge themselves in the meninges covering the brain. In humans, rat lungworms travel to the brain. If other rats eat the infected snails, the cycle continues, but if humans eat the infected snails, the parasite takes a different path. ![]() Snails eat the feces and a new batch of lungworms hatches inside them. Eggs hatch inside the rat, crawl out of the lungs and into its mouth, and are eventually discharged in feces. This parasitic nematode primarily infects rats, with adult worms infesting the blood vessels that transport blood from the lungs to the heart. There is one very good reason every gardener needs to minimize contact with slugs and snails: They spread disease.īoth garden snails and garden slugs are potential hosts of the rat lungworm, Angiostongylus cantonensis. While snail and slug damage to garden plants is bad, some things about slugs and snails in your garden are very bad. They leave a slimy trail everywhere they go that attracts other slugs. They mow down seedlings as soon as they emerge from the ground. They may devour bulbs while they are still in the ground. Or they just live underground and eat the roots like the Keel Slug. They strip bark off young trees and chew smooth, irregular holes through leaves. They climb fruit trees and feast on fruit just as it is turning ripe. They find their way up flowering plants to eat flower buds. Snails don’t do a lot of damage at ground level, but they are strong climbers. Of course, there are many ways snails and slugs are bad for your lawn and garden. Their feces make a nitrogen-rich, mineral-laden fertilizer that enhances plant nutrition. Almost all common garden snails and slugs (except the uniquely destructive Field Slug Deroceras reticulatum), prefer dead garden detritus to living plants. There’s no doubt that slugs and snails help to clean up garden debris. Slugs burrowing deep into the ground in summer are a sign of impending drought, and slugs burrowing deep into the ground in autumn are a sign winter is coming soon. “When the black snail does cross your path, black cloud much moisture hath.” Snails climbing trees are a harbinger of hot weather. In the garden folklore, slugs and snails are weather detectors. Field Slug – By Michal Horsák, via Wikimedia CommonsĮverything about slugs and snails in your garden isn’t bad.
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