slugs/snails and rust

Do they not like rust?

I was watching a snail crawl across a table yesterday evening whilst i was having a smoke and a beer outside. This small plastic table has a patch of rust stained into it, where i left a load of nails from pallets piled up on top. The snail crawled near to it, fizzed up and belted it in the other direction.

In the interest of science.... i picked it up and put it in the patch. it exploded in liquid and looked like it shat itself. I moved it to a rust free area and it lived... i felt cruel.... then i tossed it next door

So if i rebated some rusty rebar, around the perimeter of my raised beds... would that stop slugs and snails?

 

Sounds like a fun research project.

I've just chucked a good snail in the pond. I wish I'd read this earlier, I'd have saved it for science. Still, the sprinkler is going on later for the new grass, that'll no doubt bring the snails out.

As for the actual science, my science is a bit limited, but I know that when rust reacts with water, it makes acid. I have no idea how potent that acid is. Incidentally, this is why rust on cars is contagious. Have you ever noticed how if you ignore a small rust patch on a car, it gets bigger quite quickly? That's because moisture in the air reacts with the rust, makes acid, and this acid reacts with the air and good steel and start the oxidation process, turning it rusty.

Another possibly is electrickery. When two dissimilar metals (eg rusty steel and not so rusty steel) are submerged in a mix of water and an electrolyte (eg snail slime), an electric current is set up. That's how batteries work. Quite possibly your snail turned its foot into a battery and its body into a short circuit across that battery.

I have a pH meter and a multimeter. I'll easily find a snail later. If I can just find some rust, I'll do some objective science. I'll measure how much voltage can be set up using snail slime and rust, the resistance of a snail, and using ohms law that will let me work out how much current would flow through the snail when exposed to a given voltage. I'll also measure the pH of a solution of rust and water. And of course report back my findings once I've had chance to do this highly important science. I sense a Nobel prize coming

 

Take a seat in that swivel chair and stroke that cat slowly whilst chuckling to yourself in a deep voice


MUHAHAHA

 

Had to giggle at this! Especially how you felt cruel but you tossed it over the hedge! Looking forward to the results of the research


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