How Do Snails Reproduce?

Snails are hermaphrodites, which means that each snail has both male and female reproductive organs. They are sexually mature when they are one year old and their life can last for 15 years.

Snails do not self-fertilize, and have a long mating ritual. It lasts for up to 12 hours before mating occurs. At that point, they will fertilize each other’s eggs, so they basically exchange sperm. That ensures genetic diversity in the snail population. So both snails come away from the mating with up to 100 fertilized eggs. 

After mating, the eggs are buried in dirt or mud, and the snail will grow inside for about four weeks. When they hatch, their shell will be very soft and they need to find calcium to harden it. They will do this by eating their own egg and others in the vicinity. It will be another three months before their shell is hard enough for them to be completely formed and they venture out of their nest. Their shell’s color starts out clear, then changes to blue, and then becomes the color of their species.   

Snail Basics

Snail is a name for most of the members of the Gastropoda class that have coiled shells as adults. This includes land snails, sea snails, and freshwater snails. A slug is a snail without a shell, or a very small one. There are more sea snails than the other types of snails. Snails can grow to almost a meter in length and weigh up to 40 pounds.

Snails can be carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous. They have a thin tongue called a radula that has thousands of very small tooth-like structures on it. This effectively chops or grates the food into smaller pieces.Some have lungs and other have gills.   

Uses of Snails

One medical use of snails is making painkillers. In 2006, a new painkiller hit the market in Britain that is based on the venom of a snail. The drug Prialt, or ziconotide, was developed after 20 years of research by a professor at the University of Utah, Baldomera Olivera. It is 1000 times more powerful than morphine and is non-addictive. It is administered by injection into the spinal fluid.  It is aimed at helping people who suffer from severe, chronic pain. The drug is a synthetic version of the venom of the Magician’s Cone Snail, or Conus magus. It uses its venom to paralyze fish and then swallows them whole. There may be more drugs in the future from the 500 different types of cone snails, which represent at least 100 different toxins.  

Some people eat snails. Usually they use the French term for snails, “escargot.”  The French eat 40,000 tons of snails a year. As in many recipes, the sauce is the most important part of preparing snails. One popular one is "à la Bourguignone" which has butter with parsley, garlic and other spices. Snails are healthy as they contain calcium, magnesium, and vitamin C.  

Getting Rid of Snails

Most people don’t want to see snails on their dinner plate or in their garden. Here are some tips for ridding your garden of snails and slugs.

• You can trap them by putting grape juice or fresh beer in containers and leaving them on the ground overnight. The next morning, many snails will be in the containers.
• You can also put coffee grounds around the plants.
• Try putting out human hair or fur to entangle them.
• Iron phosphate in pellets can be thrown around your plants. This is better than poison and good for the soil.
• Put up a copper barrier on the perimeter. Copper shocks slugs and snails when they touch it.

Finally, Diatomaceous earth, or DE, will dehydrate snails and slugs on contact.