7 April 2016 Density of snails / little snails at a farming park

Theory: The following values are accepted during planning the numbers of snails at a farming park: it is assumed on average that ca. 100 eggs are obtained from one cocoon laid by an Aspersa Muller snail, with ca. 90 snails assumed to hatch from the cocoon.

Snails should not be present too densely within farming parks.

The possible snail density is 250-500 pcs. per m² of a farming field, and our experience hints that the density of 400 pcs. per m² is the optimum density. This density corresponds to 4 cocoons per m². This density ensures minimum losses and the most balanced growth of snails.

  Practice: It is a well known fact that with the limited farming space, high numbers of hatching snails will be released into the park, without disposing of the excess. However, we should take care and curb the density below a certain threshold. More is not always better as the entire farm can be lost (snails can shrink during fattening). With higher density, care should be taken to provide more pastures in the field and to maintain plants throughout the entire fattening period.