Serge,

I apologize: I do not know the relative speediness of the two
gastropods. However, I have never heard of a snail race, while at the
Elma, Washington Slug Festival, there is an annual Slug Race. The two
times I've attended, there was about equal representation from the native
Banana Slug (Ariolimax (?) columbianus) and the garden-munching brown
feral eurasian slug (I have no idea what genus - _Limex_ ?)

Bird Association: Farmers often use ducks and geese to 'control' slugs
in strawberry fields, etc. Do wild birds make much use of the slug resource?

On Thu, 1 Jun 1995, Serge Le Huitouze wrote:

> Jon Anderson writes:
> > (cc me at anderjda at dfw.wa.gov and I can download the message and get it
> > to him via slug mail (somewhat faster than snail mail) if needs be.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Is this scientifically proven that slugs are faster than snails ?
>
> I am not really up to date on these gastropods.
> Maybe a knowledgeable gastropoder (gastropodwatcher ?) could enlighten us !
>

I had used 'slug mail' to refer to a daily courier that the NW Indian
Fish Commission uses to get mail, memos, disks from NWIFC to Wash Fish &
Wildlife and back, as opposed to relying on US Postal Service or the Wash
Campus Mail system.