A mum found up to 30 snails slithering around on her kitchen counter after her five-year-old son tried to save them from the rain.
Toni-Anne Lacey, 26, had been admiring her garden's snail population with her son Rye Bowles when he noticed it had started to rain. Wales Online reports how the youngster asked if he could help them "escape the water" and she handed him a tub to collect them.
Rye asked asked his mum if they could sleep inside too so she put a lid on them before he went off to bed. Later that night, the mum-of-two switched on the light and discovered her kitchen had been taken over by dozens of slime-covered snails.
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She said that as she flicked on the lights and prepared to grab a drink, she spotted one of the snails on her fridge door. Toni-Anne, who is also mum to Rheo, two, then glanced around the room and realised they were all over the kitchen.
The creepy crawlies had squeezed through a tiny gap in the plastic container as the lid hadn't been put on properly and traced across her kitchen counter. Stomach-churning photos show the creatures on her fridge, perched on her kettle, climbing a jar of coffee and even leaving slime all over her newly-washed clothes.
Toni-Anne, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, said: "It was funny. I just turned the light on, went to the fridge to get a drink and noticed them straight away. [One] was on the side of the fridge.
"They were all over the worktop, the washing and crawling down to the floor. There was one on the kettle. Everyone found that the funniest. They'd trailed their way through clean washing and they were on the fridge as well.
"You could see all their slime everywhere and it was a nightmare to clean up. It took me about an hour to clean the kitchen again. There were around 20 or 30 but luckily they hadn't all got out. The lid was slightly off to the side so they were escaping through the gap."
Rye and Rheo were on high-alert for days searching the house to find any more snails which may have escaped. To Toni-Anne's relief, she had managed to evict them all.
After an hour of frantically cleaning and rounding up the shelled escape artists, she has vowed never to have minibeasts in the house again.
Toni-Anne said: "They were all over the kitchen. It was quite a shock. Rye loves the outdoors and nature. He loves animals and bugs and just likes collecting them from the garden.
"He asked if they could sleep inside. He has a little tub that he likes to keep them in. Even though snails love the rain he thought they were trying to escape the water. He put them all in the tub, brought them inside and went to bed. I got up to make a drink a few hours later and realised he hadn't put the lid on properly.
"We were expecting a few to pop up around the house over the next few days but I think I managed to put them all outside. I didn't come across any more. Everyone was saying how funny it was and say they'd burn the house down.
"I'm quite a relaxed parent to be honest and nothing really phases me so I just put them outside. This isn't going to happen again. They'll be staying outside from now on."
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