I wouldn’t wollop him, and I know you didn’t actually mean it. It was just a figure of speech.
I would have ASKED him to do 3 things:
1) I would have handed him a napkin and asked him to place them on the napkin to throw away after he finished.
2) Asked him, not tell him, to go to the men’s room and spit it in the toilet and come back when he was finished.
3) Taken one of the nails he bit off and put it on his plate and ask him to imagine that is someone else’s nail, can you imagine someone flicking their nail on your plate!
For some people it is a habit, for others it may be a nervous condition of habit. I’d have to find out which, and go from there later to help my other half, to make sure it doesn’t happen again!
I’m a grown adult, I don’t like someone reprimanding me or demanding things of me, when they think I have done wrong. Talk to me and you will get me to cooperate with you much more quickly without any hassle.
I look at it this way, if you have been with some of the guys I have been with, nail biting is nothing compared to the flatulating guys I have been with! I’d take nail biting anytime, it may be irritating to me, but at least I can stay in the same room with them and it’s not near as embarassing!