Pet Mollusks - Interesting Facts about Land Snails
By: Rocky & Bullwinkle (our pet invertebrates)



Fun Facts about Your Pet Snail

1. Snails are not insects as some people think; they are in
fact Mollusks and belong to a completely different family
than insects. The Mollusca phylum contains such animals as
octopus, squid, slug, and clam, as well as snails.

2. Snails produce a slime trail made of a thick viscous
slime that they use to get around. This slime is so thick
that a snail can crawl across the edge of a knife and not
get cut, and it acts both as glue and a lubricant, so a
snail can slide across the ground on its single foot as well
as climbing up walls without falling off.

3. The biggest land snail, the Giant African Snail or Ghana
Tiger Snail, can be up to fifteen inches long (thirty-eight
centimeters) and weigh up to two pounds (six hundred grams).

4. The longest lived snail that was documented and recorded
lived for fifteen years, but a research study of Mud Snails
in the eastern United States indicated that some individuals
might live as long as seventy years!

5. The land snail's eyes are located on the ends of its two
longest antennas. Land snails have very poor eyesight; they
are only able to distinguish between dark and light. Snails
sense through touch and smell to find their food because of
their poor vision. But land snails have better eyesight in
comparison to smell than water snails have.

6. Snails have no ears and no sense of hearing.

7. Most snails have both male and female sex organs, so any
two snails that meet could mate with each other. Animals
having both male and female sex organs are commonly referred
to as hermaphrodites.

8. Snails do not travel in a straight line; they travel in
irregular lines and often in circles. Most land snails move
by pulsing waves in their one muscular "foot." The waves
move from back to front and push the snail forward by
pushing backward against the ground, but there is one snail
that "walks" by pushing back with one side of its foot and
then the other side similar to the way many other animals
walk.

9. Snails have sets of jaws inside their mouths, and radula
(muscles similar to the human tongue) with many rows (up to
thousands) of tiny teeth. The radula move back and forth
rapidly to grind up the snail's food. The teeth wear away
quickly because plants are hard to chew, but new teeth grow
back constantly, just like our fingernails.

10. Snails can defy gravity because their slime is so
viscous that it creates suction along any surface, so they
can climb plants and branches easily. The slime also helps
keep the snail from dehydrating, as it both protects the
snail from losing water to the soil and atmosphere but
attracts more moisture to itself.


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