TRAIL CHATTER - Why Snails Shouldn't Leave Home

 

Both of these photos were taken while hiking Section 1 early last year. 

I spotted one on my recent hike on Section 4.  The photo I took of it was blurry.  It was gray unlike the two pictured above.

Snails are born with their shells and they need a calcium rich diet to form a healthy shell. Snails often eat the egg which it hatched from; the shell of this egg has the necessary nutrients to help the snail start forming its harder shell.

Do Snails Shed Their Shells? 

It’s a common childhood belief that slugs are snails that have outgrown or lost their shells. This is not the case. Snails can leave their shells.  Their shells can be damaged and they can also lose them completely. 

Do Snails shed their shells?

Snails start their lives with soft shells that grow along with them and harden as they age. This means the shell is fused to their body and they cannot change their shells. Snails can leave their shells to search for food and mates, but they cannot live without their shells or come out of it completely.

Do snails leave their shells?

Snails will leave their shells in a sense, but their shell will always remain attached to their body. There are a lot of things that determine whether a snail will come out of its shell, one major factor is the environment. If it is too dry the snail will seal itself in its shell with a layer of mucus to prevent it from drying out. This is why you only tend to see snails outside of their shells when it is raining. They only tend to leave their shell in search of food or a mate and spend most of their life curled inside their shell. Because they retreat deep inside their shell they can often be mistaken for dead snails.

Can a snail live without a shell, what happens when it loses its shell?

A snail cannot live without its shell, the shell protects it from predators and environmental conditions. If a snail is outside its shell then it is because the shell has been destroyed or sometimes parasites may make their way inside the shell and force the snail out. If a snail loses its shell it will sadly die shortly after, no snails have been known to survive for any more than a short amount of time without their shell.

Now that we know snails don’t shed or change their shells, lets look at why one may be without its shell. The most common reason for this is that their shell has been broken. This usually occurs after it has been stepped on by a person or if their shell has been damaged beyond repair by a predator. The loss of a snail’s shell can also be quite a long process. Snails with problems, such as calcium deficiency, will often lose their shell and it will slowly flake away. This is because they do not have the calcium levels and energy to repair it. If a snail has lost its shell it is never an intentional act on the snail’s part.

Do snails die when their shell breaks?

Snails are able to repair minor breakages to their own shells.  However, most breakages cannot be repaired by snails and the shell will eventually crumble away. The breaking of a shell would not kill a snail directly but without a shell a snail cannot survive.

Why are there empty snail shells

If snails don’t shed or change their shells, then why is it so common to see an empty snail shell on the ground? The main reason is that the body of the snail will either be eaten or it will decompose once it has died. Snails have a fleshy body that will rot away, however the shell does not rot and can become fossilized.  

Can a snail become a slug?

Slugs and snails are different species and a snail cannot become a slug. However it is very possible that they evolved from the same ancestor.

The next time I see a snail shell on the trail, I will pay closer attention to the shell and check closely to see if the snail is closed up in the shell.  It is possibly the sluggish slug I saw on section 6 could have possible been a snail that had left it shell?  Not sure, I just made an assumption it was a slug.