What Do Snails Eat?

The Giant African Land Snail has Herbivorous diet consuming vegetables and also sand, bones, and small stones for calcium.

As the name suggests, this snail is native to Africa, and it is one of the largest snail species considering its approximate length of 20 cm. This gastropod is considered to have a high reproduction rate. Its habitat constitutes river banks, streams banks, shrublands, gardens, plantations, and wetlands. It also has its home in a myriad of urban locations. This type of snail thrives in habitats that are humid and hot.

The Roman Snail is primarily herbivorous mainly eating fruits, leaves, tree sap, and other plant matter.

The Roman snail is native to Europe. This gastropod mollusk is widely known because it is edible. Its habitat mainly constitutes temperate forests which record low rainfall and have humid temperatures.

The Garden Snail is also mainly herbivorous eating a vast range of plant matter. Sometimes they are also detritivores and omnivores. They feed on the decomposing organic matter from plants and animals, and even crushed animals like other snails and worms.

This gastropod is also referred to as the European brown garden snail, and its habitat is mainly terrestrial land. This type of snail is small and ubiquitous thanks to its proliferation in terrestrial areas around the globe.

The Mediterranean Green Snail is also Herbivorous and consumes native plants, leaf surfaces, and grass.

This type of snail is commonly found in the North African region. Its habitat is mainly in the rainforests. It is also native to Europe in the area near the Mediterranean Sea.

Orchid Snails are Herbivores who feed on horticultural vegetation including orchids.

This bluish-grey gastropod mollusk is originally from North America. This is a small mollusk whose diameter can go only up to 6 mm. Its habitat is mainly in greenhouses, in orchids and other cultivated regions.

Atlantic Moon Snail has Carnivorous diet (clams), Cannibalistic (eats other moon snails).

As the name suggests, this snail is commonly found in the Atlantic area, implying they are sea/marine snails. The habitat typical for these gastropod mollusks is in the marine environs.

Hunting is typical for carnivorous or cannibalistic snails like the moon snails.

• When a predatory snail spots its prey (often a clam, or another snail), it attaches itself to it.
• This attachment is done at the umbo (the part of the snail where its shells meet).
• Two interesting mechanisms are used to reach the meat from the prey.
• First, the snail produces hydrochloric acid and enzymes through its accessory boring organ, which are instrumental in softening their preys shell.
• The second mechanism commences after the shell has softened.
• The snail then scrapes off the softened shell, a process that results in creating a beveled hole.
• The carnivorous snail then extends its proboscis inside its prey and then scrapes its tissue and proceeds to consume its prey alive.

Snails are nocturnal feeders meaning they prefer dining at night as opposed to during the day when they are at risk of drying out because of the harsh temperatures and light.

Snails eat once per day, and this is often at night. In some instances, they feed on rainy days.

Snail predators include but are not limited to humans, other mammals such as gorillas, toads, snakes, lizards, salamanders, insects, and birds such as orioles.

Snails have an important place in the animal food chain. They are instrumental in the process dubbed calcium cycling. These gastropod mollusks find calcium from their food, accumulate it in their shells, and further pass it to the food chain to their predators (either shell invaders or crushers).

In general, these invertebrates provide the perfect sources for not only cleaning up the ecosystem by taking their role as organic decomposers but also supplying food for a vast range of creatures in the food chain, some of which have been highlighted above.