Wildlife
With their messy trails and taste for greens, garden snails are often considered to be pests whose strong homing instinct makes human control difficult. They are often seen after rain, and leave a tell-tale trail of mucus. Being hermaphrodites, garden snails each have both male and female reproductive organs, but although they can mate with themselves, it's more usual to find a partner. When conditions are dry, snails retreat into their shell and seal the entrance. They can then survive in a state of suspended animation for several months.
Did you know?
A single garden snail can have 430 babies in a year.
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Gastronomic garden snails
Gourmet gastropods brought by the Romans are eating Britain out of house and home.
Gourmet gastropods brought by the Romans are eating Britain out of house and home.
Slow eaters
Snails make a slow motion meal of the wet conditions.
David Attenborough explains how the shells of snails pre-adapted them for life on land. Snails like wet conditions, and head off looking for food when it rains.
The Garden snail can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Asia, Europe, Mediterranean, United Kingdom, Wales. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Garden snail distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Helix aspersa, known by the common name garden snail, is a species of land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicidae, the typical snails. This species is one of the best-known of all terrestrial molluscs.
The species has been placed in the genus Helix, in all sources between 1774 and 1988, and in most sources until quite recently. But in a number of sources since 1990, this species has been placed in one of three other genera, depending on the classification in relation to Helix aperta and on the accepted interpretation of the ICZN Code's Article 1.3.2 for the Cornu problem. For those who regard Cornu as available the name can be Cornu aspersum (if they do not like to classify it in Helix). Those who do not regard Cornu as available, and do not like to classify the species in Helix, can select between Cantareus aspersus (this is the option for those who classify Helix aperta in the same genus as Helix aspersa, as was done by Italian research teams and others) and Cryptomphalus aspersus (for those who like to classify the two species in different genera, as was done by Ukrainian and Russian research teams).
Although this species is edible, it is often regarded simply as a pest in gardens and to agriculture, especially where it has been accidentally introduced. It is native to the Mediterranean area and western Europe, but has been spread by humans, both deliberately and accidentally, to numerous areas all over the world.
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Garden wildlife
From badgers to butterflies and frogs to foxes, garden wildlife is both varied and surprising.
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Oak wood
Farmland
Brownfield land
Beech wood
Heathland
Hedgerows
Wildflower meadow
Mediterranean forest
Moorland
Parkland
Broadleaf forest
Coniferous forest
Urban
Helpless young
Predation defence
Herbivorous
Hermaphroditic
Hibernation
Egg layer