Garden Snail Food Chains

European brown snail

Garden snails eat and are eaten. Vital links in the garden food chain, they do substantial damage but also make nutrients and minerals available to other creatures in the ecosystem.

Common Garden Residents

Snails of a wide range of species are common garden residents. The European brown snail is one of the most common. Native to Eurasia but not to the New World, it has nonetheless entered ecosystems around the world, including much of the United States. This species of snail is particularly known for having been brought to California as livestock by entrepreneurs who intended to farm their own edible escargot (the French word for snails).

Identification

Snails are a form of shellfish. They have a single shell, more like that of a conch than that of clams, oysters or mussels. The shell of a European brown snail is smooth and wound in a flat, curled spiral. Other common garden snails have slender, pointed shells spiraling from a tiny peak down to a wide mouth. Snails have no bones and move on a single wide foot lubricated with slime. They carry their eyes on tall stalks, often mistakenly called "horns."

What Snails Eat

Snails eat almost anything and everything. Their most common preferred food is comparatively soft, tender vegetation. Tender new shoots of seedling plants are particularly favored, to the dismay of gardeners, farmers and agricultural workers around the world. Snails will, however, eat dead flesh, compost, coarse vegetation and almost anything else that can be consumed. As scavengers and detritus eaters, they contribute to the timely breakdown of dead plant material. As constant foragers, browsing wherever they go, they can also consume elements from such less admirable things as lead paint, cadmium and toxins from pesticides.

What Eats Snails

Snails are eaten by a wide array of omnivorous and carnivorous creatures. In the United States, racoons, skunks and possums are commonly known to eat snails, as are many birds. Snakes and lizards consider them appropriate prey. They appear on the menu of common household pets, serving as a minor crunchy snack for many cats and dogs who develop a taste for them. They are also famously eaten by humans.

Considerations

Because snails eat so many things and are eaten by so many creatures in the ecosystem, it is important to use caution when attempting to control snails in the garden. Poisons fed to snails can and often do get passed on to innocent and desirable animals and can even be passed on to people if wild snails are used in escargot recipes. Fortunately there is a wide array of effective snail baits that are non-toxic to most birds and animals. The majority use iron to disrupt snails' digestive functions, leading to eventual starvation and death.

References

• OSU Snails/Slugs
• Living Organisms Research, Snails
• Hiker's Notebook, Brown Common Snail

Resources

• Wildlife in the Garden