Neighbor Michelle reports that her home on Highland Ave. has been besieged by a relentless army of invading snails:
Last night I went out to the garage to do my laundry (in true Bernalwood style this means going out the front door to get to the garage), and discovered this S.L.O.W. invasion of my home in progress.
Either that or they’re lined up to watch slug races up and down the street!
Follow that mucus-trail!
PHOTO: Neighbor Michelle
Bernalwood 
Were they delivering the mail, I wonder?
Snails are a symbol of self-containment and self-sufficiency. Surely a sign of good luck!
You have to wonder if they have to start the day before to make it to our steps on some kind of schedule. Also, they only show up on foggy nights — How do they know? The Snail Weather Channel?
Ever see the ending of a Zed and Two Noughts?
I’ve noticed more that the usual number of snails in our yard too. Coincidence?
Only in the same way that D-Day was a coincidence. Which wasn’t much of a coincidence at all.
Michelle here — this is a pretty common occurrence on our front steps when the fog really settles in. A colleague at work reports that some old family friends in Bernal raised “chickens and snails,” so maybe these are domesticated snails run amok?
The snails I’ve seen since moving to Bernal are identical to the ones I had in the lower Haight, which were definitely present in mass. Snails and slugs are probably the most destructive garden pest we have in the area, so I’m in a constant war to keep the lines of my yard secure from the neighbor’s invading armies. (I highly recommend Cory’s Snail Death augmented with stale beer).
Ever read “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” by Elizabeth Tova Bailey: Check this out when you have time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2suzMV_ME (Course then you will never see snails in the same way again.)
When we joined the slow food movement we didn’t know this would happen. We put snails on the reusable grocery bags and it seems that they are multiplying. Sorry… http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/good_clean_fair/