My previous questions of this type (one concerning Plops, the other Chompers) concerned protecting medieval villages. This question is less specific, and here's why: Snappers can spawn anywhere.
Seriously, anywhere where water collects (anywhere mosquitoes may lay their eggs) is a potential spawn point for Snappers. When rain falls and makes puddles, Snappers spawn in those. Anywhere water has gone stagnant (or gathers if it's raining), a Snapper will likely spawn inside-not a typical vase with flowers, the area has to be big enough to admit a typical bullfrog inside it (because Snappers are around that size). Thus, the amount of Snappers that spawn in an area is the maximum amount of bullfrogs that can fit comfortably in that space.
This is especially bad in desert areas, where cisterns are supposed to store life-sustaining (and clean) water but instead end up holding lots and lots of Snappers. It also makes drawing water from a well potentially dangerous-Snappers can jump six feet up, their jaws can open wide enough for them to engulf a man's face, if not his entire head, and thanks to their webbed feet (no legs, just the feet, they use their powerful tails to jump, sort of like a springtail) they can crawl around, looking for nice faces to eat.
That begs the question, how dangerous is a Snapper? (This is not the question you are answering, by the way). Snappers can:
Leap six feet up and six feet away in a single bound,
Engulf someone's head after said bound,
If not promptly removed, start growing to engulf the entire body,
Breathe air and water with equal ease,
Run up to 28 mph on land, swim 56 mph in water
Eat almost anything (they have cast iron stomachs, they're omnivorous but prefer meat, their jaws can snap or crush bone with ease, and their teeth are also as sharp and hard as steel daggers),
Live almost anywhere; saltwater, freshwater, mud, on land if it's humid enough (think swamp, marsh or rainforest),
and 8. are slippery and aggressive enough to escape a fisherman's grasp and maul him; think pirahnas on legs, but with the ferocity of a wolverine.
Obviously, Snappers are a real threat to human safety. The question, my question, is How Can Medieval People Protect Themselves From Snappers?
Please Note:
- Snappers are tough, so they aren't easily killed. You can whack one with an oar, throw it against a brick wall, and it'll be perfectly fine. You could even use one as a stress squishy, if not for the fact it would slip out of your hands and proceed to attack you. Attempts to crush Snappers with rocks or other heavy objects usually see them popping out from under them. They've also been dropped from 50 feet up, only to walk away unharmed.
They are also coated in a ooze that is endowed with cooling and fire-suppressing secretions when exposed to heat, so burning them won't work (at least not quickly, their coolant would have to be exhausted) except with Engulfer-fueled flames, and those are temperamental. However, they can be starved, suffocated, frozen, eaten (though your insides won't like the results), and so forth. Plops and Chompers also eat Snappers, as do Engulfers.
Specifications For Best Answer:
The best answer will include active and passive methods; methods that require human action to work and others that work without interference. I count behavioral patterns as active methods.
The best answer will thoroughly cover multiple viable methods and explain why they'd work.
Said methods should be viable for medieval villagers, something they can actually come up with and produce. That being said, human ingenuity is quite something, so I'm willing to be lenient on this one.
Please let me know if there is any more information needed, thank you for your input! By the way, if you decide to VTC or down-vote, please explain why so I can improve the question.
