Yuk or yum? I have been fighting snails continuously since I planted some basil last year. Snails love basil. After unsatisfactory investigations into beer traps, copper barriers, and midnight hand-picking, I had settled on iron phosphate bait. Then one morning I saw birds merrily breakfasting on the tasty snail bait. I’ve just about given up on fresh pesto this year. Culinary cravings brought the brown garden snail to California in the first place. The gardener’s hated Helix aspersa is one and the same as the gourmet’s escargot. They were imported for food in the 1850s, but never quite caught on here as they did in France. Freed from their culinary prison, the snails proliferated amongst the gourmet California vegetation. You can catch and eat them if you’d like. The ones around our garden at least are already well-seasoned with basil.