Snail Experiment Day 2

The plant pots were recoated to make sure they behaved properly and that the results on day 1 were not due to coating problems. I was particularly hoping that the first superhydrophobic coating would stop the snails.

For those who have not read the previous blogs I am putting food on upturned plantpots in boxes of snails. The plantpots have been painted to make them superhydrophobic and the idea is to see if snails can climb superhydrophobic surfaces.

This night the coating that worked last time worked again with snails eating the control lettuce on a flat surface of the same chemistry but leaving the lettuce on the superhydrophobic pot untouched.

I thought it was time for a quick addition to the experiment so I attached a snail to the pot by hand, it fell straight off again. This looks like a good sign, but I have thought of a potential problem. What is the coating is just breaking off and coating the snail's foot with bits, it could not hold on then. I will have to think of a way of testing for this.

The coating that did not work on day 1 was much the same on day 2, it discoraged the snails from climbing while I watched, but did not stop them from eating the lettuce once I had gone. Here is a picture of the first snail to try the ascent, it seems to be much slower than snails on the flat coating, which gives me the idea of trying to time them, I wonder if one of the students could be suckered into sitting in the dark with a stopwatch...