Best way to label / mark snail shells?

[horrr0r]

All I could find was basically "don't do it at all"... but I want to do it*! These snails are to be released outside near my home so I want to be able to track them when I visit them, check on them, and if I find one dead I want to know who it is, and if I see one without a label I'll know it's one I hadn't seen before.

Sharpie markers fade off in a few days. Sharpie paint pens fade off after getting wet. "Nail art" polish chips off at some point (as little as 2 days). So they're going to need a topcoat or stronger media.

A coat of superglue (cyanoacrylate) brushed over top lasts decently long, but its too hard to work with. It dries and petrifies the brushes every few seconds. Squeezing a drop directly onto the shell is too risky to consider!

I tried nail polish topcoat, but the snail stayed in his shell incessantly after that. He was back to his normal self after I scrubbed it all off with a Magic Eraser sponge. (Idk if the issue was that specific snail, that specific topcoat, or if it would even stay on effectively!)

Is there any paint that would work?

*it won't make them attractive to predators. Where I live the only "predators" they have are humans, and bugs like flatworms, mites, etc. Our birds are too small to eat these large GALS.

[MaxPower]

Are GALs native where you are? You shouldn't be releasing them if they aren't and you could even be breaking the law.

As for paint, I'm of the opinion you shouldn't do it. If they eat it it's almost certain to be toxic or at least will stop them caring for their shell properly. It's not fair on the snail. You certainly shouldn't be using glue or nail polish, they're definitely toxic to both the snail and the environment. Instead you could take photos and make note of any distinguishing features they have.

[wolf]

Hi horrOr,

I think MaxPower is absolutely right. As far as I remember, you don't live in Africa but in Hawaii (?), where the climate should be optimal for the Achatininae. It will be extremely difficult to find any egg they lay and to prevent the hatchlings from escaping. Perhaps you remember the huge problems in Florida (and on several tropical islands) caused by released or escaped Achatina fulica. There's a high risk that you cause a lot of trouble for yourself and for your vulnerable environment. We all have to take responsibility for our environment and biodiversity.

Have a good time, kind regards: wolf

[horrr0r]

Dec 12, 2015 10:15:44 GMT MaxPower said:

Are GALs native where you are? You shouldn't be releasing them if they aren't and you could even be breaking the law.

As for paint, I'm of the opinion you shouldn't do it. If they eat it it's almost certain to be toxic or at least will stop them caring for their shell properly. It's not fair on the snail. You certainly shouldn't be using glue or nail polish, they're definitely toxic to both the snail and the environment. Instead you could take photos and make note of any distinguishing features they have.

Yes. In fact I caught them in the same location where I'm releasing them. So I'm rereleasimg them. The native snails here are all gone, they are only in a conservatory area that's hours away from my neighborhood, in the mountains. (Oahu).

I think I may have been unclear, if it sounded like painting the whole shell or something. I was thinking of doing a small letter or number, or a combination of 1-3 small dots (like poppy seed sized) in different color patterns. Also the reasons I thought nail polish or superglue was because I once read something about ways to label snail shells written by & for malacologists & ecologists etc for use in field study research and experiments..it even listed specific brands of things that they recommended were safe but I can't find that excerpt. But, ehh, i feel awfully ignorant now! :s

[horrr0r]

Dec 12, 2015 10:34:34 GMT wolf said:

Hi horrOr,

I think MaxPower is absolutely right. As far as I remember, you don't live in Africa but in Hawaii (?), where the climate should be optimal for the Achatininae. It will be extremely difficult to find any egg they lay and to prevent the hatchlings from escaping. Perhaps you remember the huge problems in Florida (and on several tropical islands) caused by released or escaped Achatina fulica. There's a high risk that you cause a lot of trouble for yourself and for your vulnerable environment. We all have to take responsibility for our environment and biodiversity.

Have a good time, kind regards: wolf

Yes, Honolulu Hawaii. The place I was planning on putting the fulicas is right by my own home, which is where I found them. That isnt still considered bad, is it? If that's where they existed on their own and I just took them in for a week or 2 or 3, then put them back? I know you aren't supposed to put imported or purchased snails outside but I've never even purchased/imported a snail before, all mine have been found out on my street.

I've found 3 "colonies" of fulicas on my street. In this area near some plamt nurseries where my boyfriend delivers newspapers, there are so many on the sidewalks and roads at night they he can't avoid accidentally running them over sometimes

idk about other islands but where I am, A. fulica, B. similaris, and A. gracile are the only snails I've been seeing since I was a kid/ for the past 20 years.

Our native snails are the rare "singing" Oahu tree snails. An ancient hawaiian chant tells how they "sing" to the golden plover, asking it to bring some fresh dew from the ferns to quench their thirst . Sadly, the introduced rosy wolfsnail killed off &/or critically endangered them all. They only exist in a protected conservatory that's hours away from where I live and up in the mountains. I've never seen a rosy wolf snail nor an Oahu tree snail, not in the area I live in the Capitol.

(Are those the ones you were referring to? )

[MaxPower]

Dec 12, 2015 16:30:21 GMT horrr0r said:

Dec 12, 2015 10:15:44 GMT MaxPower said:

Are GALs native where you are? You shouldn't be releasing them if they aren't and you could even be breaking the law.

As for paint, I'm of the opinion you shouldn't do it. If they eat it it's almost certain to be toxic or at least will stop them caring for their shell properly. It's not fair on the snail. You certainly shouldn't be using glue or nail polish, they're definitely toxic to both the snail and the environment. Instead you could take photos and make note of any distinguishing features they have.

Yes. In fact I caught them in the same location where I'm releasing them. So I'm rereleasimg them. The native snails here are all gone, they are only in a conservatory area that's hours away from my neighborhood, in the mountains. (Oahu).

I think I may have been unclear, if it sounded like painting the whole shell or something. I was thinking of doing a small letter or number, or a combination of 1-3 small dots (like poppy seed sized) in different color patterns. Also the reasons I thought nail polish or superglue was because I once read something about ways to label snail shells written by & for malacologists & ecologists etc for use in field study research and experiments..it even listed specific brands of things that they recommended were safe but I can't find that excerpt. But, ehh, i feel awfully ignorant now! :s

So you're not in Africa then, but Hawaii, where GALs are not native. You may have found them in the wild but that does not mean you should release them, they are an invasive species and probably helped extirpate (locally extinct) your native snails from the area. In almost all countries, releasing non-native species, even if they've already invaded, is very much illegal. It also means native species have an even harder time recovering.

No I knew you only meant a small amount but the point still stands. Paint, glue and nail polish, even when listed as safe, are not safe for the environment. Soap for example, is safe for our hands, but you wouldn't want to eat it, nor would you want it in a stream.

I'm not trying to be awkward, I'm just trying to tell you to think about your snails and your environment first, not your desire to know what will happen to them. Likelihood is you won't find them again anyway, and if they get eaten it will probably be upsetting. Probably better to just sell them or keep them, but if you must release them, just leave them be.

[Liguus]

I might just carve some numbers into the shell (not too deep of course). But I also probably wouldn't release them and count myself lucky to have GALS where I live.

As for the environment: I've got mixed feelings. You probably shouldn't release them since there are native tree snails where you live. I don't really think a couple achatina re-released will make much of an impact though. Seems like there should be a better extermination protocol.

[Cashell]

I'm not sure what to really say about this situation, because we also have a lot of foreign species here in Canada like the very popular cepaea nemoralis, that have been well established without becoming serious pests, so there are no laws in regards to releasing them. Things like helix snails and achatinas is a whole other story though. Everyone that has posted so far recommends that you hold onto them to keep them out of the environment, but from the looks of it Hawaii doesn't seem like it's been devastated from them nor do I hear the same type of "horror" stories that I hear from Florida all the time, so I'll just say that you carefully use your discretion here. Also, don't bother with marking them because rain, wind and elements will easily take it off. Scientists who want to track animals normally microchip them or do some other thing of the sort that I can't remember, but in the case of these snails it may not be worth it.

[MaxPower]

The thing with Hawaii is though, that it's a relatively small, distant plot of land with very specialised and unique animals, so it's much more likely for native species to go extinct from "just a few" escapees. Plus, snails breed fast, especially with no predators (as horr0r said). I'm into conservation and I know that Hawaii has suffered a lot of environmental damage from non-native invasions, so please do consider what you're doing. A few snails won't make a massive difference ultimately, but it certainly won't help.

[wolf]

Hi,
I totally agree with MaxPower making some good points.
Kind regards: wolf

[muddydragon]

I'm fairly sure that releasing something deemed a pest back into the environment is an illegal act and you could be prosecuted (especially after posting about it on a forum).

[morningcoffee]

Giant African land snails are under federal quarantine in Hawaii as an invasive species. Please do not release them into the wild or discuss doing so here as this is illegal.

www.hungrypests.com/the-spread/hawaii.php

[astana]

I agree that you should reconsider releasing the snails, but if you ever want to mark their shells while they are still under your jurisdiction, use something nontoxic so that they won't attempt to eat it while they are grooming/if it chips off.

[horrr0r]

I see, thank you all I seem to have had a misunderstanding. Can anyone tell me where I should turn in GALS that I find in my neighborhood, is there such a place? There are so many and I already have way too many in my home, so where is the best place to turn them in?

[Cashell]

In your case, nowhere... You either keep them, destroy them, or feed their meat to an animal. I suppose you could privately give them to other people in your neighborhood, but the problem with this is that they may be very irresponsible with them, so unless you can guarantee that they won't, you'll be better off finding alternate solutions.