I planted vegetables this summer and the snails ate them! Because I don't like killing anything, I used to periodically collect the snails at night in a bucket then take them up to the top of my street where there is a park, and dump them out. Hedgehogs even began to gather in anticipation of my arrival.

All in all, this system didn't work very well. The snails just did their homing pigeon routine, and seemed to acquire an even bigger appetite. In the end I gave up, and let them eat away.

Folk kept telling me that crushed eggshells are a very effective deterrent, and I believe them, so I bring you The Eggshell Sprinkler System.

It's a bit like one of those hand held, cheese grating devices. A little hopper feeds a rotating drum that masticates the contents, which fall simply fall out the other end. (see link)

The main differences are: The Eggshell Sprinkler System has a heating element in the storage hopper - this dries out the eggshells, so that they don't cling to the apparatus. There is also a flexible extension tube, to deliver the fragmented contents to ground level, so that you don't have to stoop down to get under the spreading leaves.

The delux version has a control gauge to allow for adjusting the pressure of the crushing roller system, to create a coarse, standard, or fine particle.
-- xenzag, Aug 19 2009

Mouli-grator http://www.moulinex...igrat.htm?OnpageA=1
I have an ancient one of these [xenzag, Aug 19 2009]

//and seemed to acquire an even bigger appetite//
All that exercise!
-- coprocephalous, Aug 19 2009


This idea is a bit of a yolk ....
-- 8th of 7, Aug 19 2009


This would also be useful for those times when you have to walk on eggshells.
-- English Bob, Aug 19 2009


This is half way there. Next it should channel the pulverized shell through a vibration trough (like that thing they used to have in the science museum, if you ever saw it) and carefully irrigate the slug-prone areas of the garden with it, all automatically.
-- mitxela, Aug 19 2009


Snails are homing? Really?

Hmmm... How long do snails live? How fast are they?

I could set up a homing snail club.
-- Loris, Aug 19 2009


How many homing snails would it take to move a good-sized couch, I wonder?
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 21 2009


//Hedgehogs even began to gather in anticipation of my arrival.

All in all, this system didn't work very well. The snails just did their homing pigeon routine//

So ... very slow hedgehogs, or very fast snails?

I'm hearing the Attenborough voice-over for the chase scene.
-- pertinax, Sep 11 2023


I always liked my egg shell sprinkler device, and still consider it to be an idea in the true spirit of the halfbakery, but several sad humbugs opposed it without ever saying why.
-- xenzag, Sep 11 2023


Thank you for doing your part to evolve faster, stealthier snails. I further appreciate the attempt to add bottom armor plating, something that has always been needed.
-- Voice, Sep 11 2023


I didn't bone this idea, but may I suggest you wouldn't like an explained bone any more than a stealth bone?
-- Voice, Sep 11 2023


I don't like negativity if any kind.
-- xenzag, Sep 11 2023


Flying snails obviously
-- pocmloc, Sep 11 2023


//I don't like negativity if any kind//

Sorry, bub, but no one deserves unending praise. Anyway that road leads to narcissism.
-- Voice, Sep 11 2023



random, halfbakery