A very quick post before I head across the pond on a fellowship…
I recently needed to transport live snails between research institutions – the drive is normally around 12 hours and can be done in a day, but with timing and traffic I knew it would take two days this time around.
I needed to bring a number of snails with me, along with my four-legged besties (Ryland and Fritter). While Ryland and Fritter ride in their crates, I knew a snail crate would not be an option.
The snails did arrive safely, using a system put together at the last minute (a 12V to 110V DC to AC adapter, an aquarium air pump, and some 2 L jugs). Some things I would do differently…
Snail water is generally not something you want spilling in your car (speaking from experience), so I was balancing aeration with spill risk. I ended up using other gear to wedge the jugs to minimize spilling as I wound around the mountains along my route. Next time we will be making airline-sized holes in the lids so that we can constantly aerate. I’ll also be bringing a proper T-valve so I do not need to constantly swap the airline between the jugs!
