Land snails in my kitchen

It was a very hot day today in Crete. Hot wind, African dust and a terrible atmosphere.

In the morning I went for a walk, because I wanted to check out a specific place (we are having a beach clean up on Saturday) and then I went to gather a few vineleaves for my gemista (vegetables & vine leaves stuffed with rice).

Vine leaves are usually the home of baby snails, so even if I was super attentive throwing them away- some of the snails were hiding so ... a little bit later - I found them on the leaves, right in my home! (and on the bench of my kitchen)
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Of course I would not let that opportunity to go away. I thought of what to give them for food, threw some drops of water on them in case they were thirsty and I tried to film them! I even got to see one of them breathing and using its pneumostome (cool word, huh?)
Check out more images & videos below

Discovery #1: Land snails loooove fresh tomato & fresh zucchini

Till now, whenever I found snails, I would feed them bread crumbs. This time I thought of giving them some tomato & zucchini chopped. They absolutely loved it.

They were so happy that they ate it all :)

Discovery#2: Land snails can get very intimate

They were 5 snails in total. 3 little ones and 2 baby ones (sooo little) I was very surprised to see that the two babies climbed all the way up to the older snail. Was it for them to have a better view? Was it just by accident? Whatever the reason, they were soooo cute I had to share them!

Discovery #3: I got to see up close a pneumostome

When one of the snails finished his/her meal, he/she wanted to explore!
I was lucky to notice that there was a hole opening and closing at a steady pace, and I remembered what I learned when I was checking out the anatomy of the land snails. The land snails and the slugs breathe from a hole called "pneumostome" (this probably comes from the Greek words pneumonas (lung) and stome (mouth))

Their anal pore (where they poop from) is supposed to be next to their breathing area, but I could not notice it. Perhaps it will be more evident to bigger/more grown up snails.

Check out this short gif and tell me if you can notice his pneumostome!

Wondering

If you are also wondering about how snails are mating, here's something that impressed me a lot.

Mating happens after the sunset, when the snails are at their peak activity. The mating process is very slow – like everything else snails do – and it can take up to 12 hours. (!!)

source
And some extra info here

Read here some interesting snail facts

My personal discoveries and every day experiences: https://www.instagram.com/katycrete/
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And let's not forget my giphy channels

For my city: https://giphy.com/channel/aboutheraklion
My personal account: https://giphy.com/channel/katyramm

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