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Post by crucify on Feb 22, 2014 17:09:05 GMT
So after stomping around the hills in gale winds picking up supplies and freezing my face off yesterday, I decided to clean out the aspersas (+ a few nemoralis and two slugs) I picked them all out and left them in a baking tray with water and loose green tea leaves, chopped up, dried and ready to use in a drink instead of smear on small animals. After I finished freezing to death outside, carrying around ice-cold trays of water and shoving my hands in it, I absolutely ruined their happy little bath by picking them up and scrubbing them clean one-by-one. After a while I noticed all the excess mucus, old shell sealings, feces and dirt were congealing with the tea leaves and pretty much came right off. If it didn't slide off picking them up, it came off right away with a little wiping with some paper roll. Thought I'd share my little snail-tormenting discovery since it's great for getting off all that built up dirt and grime they roll in.
Only one of them forgave me for scrubbing them all over and wiping dirt off their body. All the others bubbled up, hid or made scrunchy faces. I'm amazed by how docile my aspersas are, all WC and they're friendlier than my GALS. Biggest one looks like a giant black slug who tried to wear a shell, they're really growing big.
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Cashell
Archachatina puylaerti
Posts: 1,124
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Post by Cashell on Feb 28, 2014 19:26:05 GMT
Hmm, interesting. The last time I tried to give a snail (brown-lipped) a green tea bath it reacted by foaming and retracting deeply.  |
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Post by malacophile on Feb 28, 2014 20:06:33 GMT
Something I've been wondering: Would a green tea bath need to be heavily diluted to be safe? I don't imagine snails have the best caffeine tolerance in the world, and I know that caffeine can be absorbed transdermally.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734 
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Post by Zorst on Feb 28, 2014 20:53:08 GMT
My lot love there green tea baths, but its very dilute not strong, they have them about once a month as part of a general parasite control routine I have, or more often if needed. As it keeps mites at bay from what I've been told, I've only had mites once that came with some Gals I was given.
Thankfully it never spread any further than them. They had green tea baths and it killed the mites n cleared the snails of them, hence I now give new snails a quarantine time n a couple of green tea baths etc and keep a general monthly routine up for all the snails. So far it works, and all the snails enjoy the baths.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Aug 9, 2014 9:58:42 GMT
I'm digging up this old thread because of relevance. How dilute is very dilute? I'm thinking of green tea bathing small snails here.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Aug 9, 2014 13:11:26 GMT
I take a mug of hot water and fill it about 1/4 of the mug add the green tea back for no more than 1 minute and then take that water and add it to 1 pint of tepid water. It should come out a very pale yellowish green color. All my snails inc the babies like this bath. But i really don't make it strong.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Aug 9, 2014 21:00:09 GMT
Thanks Zorst.  It's going to be tea time for my snails tomorrow! |
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Post by etana on Aug 10, 2014 12:50:45 GMT
Update, I followed Zorst's instructions and my snails behaved very well. One started drinking massive gulps of it, I eventually took him out of the bath and put him on wet food, the others just were calm altogether, slowly climbing up after a little while. No foam, no angry faces, no violently turning away. I think the tea was so dilute (I took extra cautions with this), it was a lot like normal bathing in slightly coloured water lol. Either way I'll definitely do this again, maybe with a drop more tea. |
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Aug 26, 2014 6:15:21 GMT
Sounds good to me and sounds like your snails were happy.
Zorst
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Post by TKSnails on May 27, 2015 10:12:51 GMT
Have been directed to this post after finding white round bugs on some of my snails. Where can I get green tea leaves from ?
Also the bugs seem to have got in with hatchlings (far too small for baths!) so what other methods could I use to rid them of there's ?
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Post by morningcoffee on May 27, 2015 12:31:13 GMT
You can purchase Hypoaspis miles predatory mites to kill off the harmful snail mites.
Green tea can be bought from pretty much any supermarket or grocery store nowadays.
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Post by TKSnails on May 27, 2015 18:35:46 GMT
You can purchase Hypoaspis miles predatory mites to kill off the harmful snail mites. Green tea can be bought from pretty much any supermarket or grocery store nowadays. Thanks, Will try the store! I've heard about the predatory mites but discovered that it's hard to find places that sell them in small quantities and I'm just a tad scared of all bugs  |
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It's going to be tea time for my snails tomorrow!
