Animal
Garden snail
The garden snail carries a round, striped shell on its back. It slides along on one big foot and leaves a shiny, slimy trail.
The garden snail is a land snail with a brown-banded shell about 3 centimeters wide. It glides on a muscular foot over a carpet of slime, comes out mostly at night and after rain, and eats almost any garden plant. It first lived in western Europe and around the Mediterranean, but people have carried it around the world.
Cornu aspersum, long known as Helix aspersa, is a helicid land snail native to Britain, western Europe and the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts. Spread deliberately as escargot and accidentally with plants, it is now a serious crop pest in places such as California. Every snail is a hermaphrodite, and it survives drought and cold by sealing its shell with a dried mucus epiphragm.
Photo: Zachi Evenor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the garden snail
The garden snail has a hard, round shell on its back.
The shell has brown stripes and yellow spots. The snail's soft body slides out to move. It can pull back inside its shell.
The garden snail is a mollusc, in the same big animal group as slugs and octopuses. Its shell is round and fairly thin, yellow or brownish with chestnut-brown bands broken up by yellow flecks. An adult shell is about 2.8 to 3.2 centimeters across.
The snail's body is gray to greenish-black with a pale line down its back. When it stretches out, its head and foot can be 5 to 6 centimeters long. When the air gets dry, it pulls back into its shell and seals the opening.
Cornu aspersum (formerly Helix aspersa) is a land snail in the family Helicidae (order Stylommatophora), described by O. F. Müller in 1774 from Italian specimens. UF/IFAS describes the adult shell as large, globose and rather thin, with four to five whorls, fine wrinkles and a turned-back lip, 28 to 32 millimeters across, yellow or horn-colored with chestnut-brown spiral bands interrupted by yellow flecks. The CFIA gives larger figures: 32 to 38 millimeters across and 29 to 33 high.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency gives the extended head and foot as 5 to 6 centimeters, yellowish-gray to greenish-black, with a pale dorsal line from the tentacles to the shell. Shell color varies between individuals, as UF/IFAS photographs of different shades show.
Quick facts
- Group
- Invertebrate
- Length
- 5 to 6 cm
- Height
- 2.9 to 3.3 cm
Where it lives
Garden snails first lived in Europe and around the Mediterranean Sea.
Now they live in gardens, parks, woods and fields in many parts of the world. They like damp, dark places to hide.
Garden snails come from Britain, western Europe and the lands around the Mediterranean and Black Seas. People have carried them to many other places, sometimes on purpose to eat as escargot, and sometimes by accident in pots of plants.
Today they live in parts of North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand too. They can live in almost any habitat, from parks and gardens to woods, scrub, grasslands and sand dunes. They like damp places with plenty of food where nobody disturbs them, and they hide in cracks and under things.
UF/IFAS cites a natural distribution in Britain, western Europe and around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, with introductions to the Atlantic islands, South Africa, Haiti, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. It was brought to California in the 1850s as a source of escargot and in the US now occurs along the west coast north to British Columbia, in most southeastern states and up the east coast to New Jersey. It is not established in Florida, which has eradicated it at least twice since 1963.
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, citing Kerney and Cameron (1979), describes it as found in almost any habitat, from parks and gardens to woodlands, scrub, grasslands and dunes, and in North America on rich soils in gardens and farmland. It prefers undisturbed, moist habitat with good food (UF/IFAS), hides in crevices and overwinters in stony ground (CFIA).
Continents
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Brought here by people · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Brought here by people · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Carried by people to the United States (introduced to California in the 1850s), British Columbia in Canada, Mexico, Haiti, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Atlantic islands.
Places: United States, Canada, Mexico, Haiti, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and 1 more places.
Source: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN396 · checked October 2026
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Native to Britain, western Europe and the lands around the Mediterranean and Black Seas (UF/IFAS). The countries shaded are those the Canadian Food Inspection Agency names inside that region: nine in Europe, plus Türkiye (Black Sea borders) and Algeria. Other Mediterranean and Black Sea countries are part of the native region but are not listed one by one in the sources.
Places: UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and 3 more places.
Source: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN396 · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Netherlands, UK, United States, Germany, France, Spain, Australia, Mexico and 87 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Garden snails eat lots of plants.
They munch leaves, flowers and fruit. They even eat paper! Farmers do not like it when snails eat their crops.
Garden snails will eat almost anything growing in a vegetable or flower garden: lettuce, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, carrots, peas, petunias, sweet peas and many more. They also eat fruit, weeds, organic matter in the soil, tree bark, and even dead animals and paper.
They feed mostly at night, and only when the temperature is mild, roughly between 5 and 21 degrees Celsius. In places where there are huge numbers of snails, such as some citrus groves in California, they can badly damage leaves and fruit.
The species is a generalist herbivore and detritivore: UF/IFAS lists feeding on soil organic matter, tree bark and vegetation, with 49 recorded host plants in South Africa alone, from cabbage and lettuce to carnations and zinnias. The CFIA adds fruit, weeds, dead animal tissue and paper.
Feeding normally occurs at 5 to 21 °C (Capinera, cited by UF/IFAS) and mostly at night. In California, dense populations damage citrus leaves and fruit, vegetables and ornamentals, and several US states impose quarantine restrictions on plant shipments because of this snail.
Shell, foot and four tentacles
A snail has four soft feelers on its head.
The two tall ones have eyes on top. It moves on one big foot. Slime helps it slide.
A garden snail has four tentacles on its head. The two long upper ones are eye stalks, with eyes at their tips. The two short lower ones are thought to help it smell, and the snail uses them to feel its way.
It moves with a gliding motion on a long, flat, muscular foot. Glands in the foot make mucus all the time, which helps it slide and leaves the shiny trail you see on paths. Its shell grows in a spiral, adding new whorls, and the opening has a lip that turns outward.
The upper tentacles are eye stalks and the lower pair are thought to be olfactory (Nash and Herzberg, The Veliger, citing Prosser 1950). Locomotion is by waves along a long, flat, muscular foot, lubricated by mucus secreted continuously by pedal glands, which leaves the characteristic trail.
The shell is nearly imperforate, with four to five whorls in adults and a reflected lip. Hatchlings have a single smooth, light-brown whorl, speckled black and without bands (CFIA). Under dry or cold conditions the snail seals its aperture with an epiphragm of hardened mucus or glues itself to a surface, reactivating in humid weather.
Eggs in a nest
Snails lay tiny white eggs in a little hole in the soil.
After about two weeks, baby snails hatch. They already have see-through shells. They grow bigger and bigger.
Every garden snail is both male and female. Two snails mate, often for 4 to 12 hours at night, and then both of them lay eggs 3 to 6 days later. Each snail digs a nest about 2.5 to 4 centimeters deep with its foot and lays around 86 white, round eggs, each about 3 millimeters wide.
In summer, the eggs hatch in about two weeks. The babies stay in the nest for two to four days, then crawl out to find food. Their first shells are thin and see-through. They grow to full size in about a year or two.
Each snail is hermaphroditic and capable of self-fertilization, though cross-fertilization is normal. Mating lasts 4 to 12 hours and is nocturnal; oviposition follows 3 to 6 days later, and both partners lay. A nest 2.5 to 4 centimeters deep, shoveled by the foot, receives 30 to 120 white spherical eggs (average 86, Basinger 1931), concealed with soil, mucus and excrement.
In warm, damp weather a snail may lay once a month; Basinger estimated about 430 eggs a year. Eggs hatch in about two weeks in summer; young stay in the nest two to four days. Shells reach 16 to 20 millimeters in one year and 26 to 33 by the second. Maturity takes about two years in southern California but about ten months in South Africa, and CFIA links its rate to calcium in the environment.
Night shift
Garden snails like the night and the rain.
On dry days they stay inside their shells. In cold weather they rest, tucked into the soil.
Garden snails are nocturnal, which means they are active at night, but after rain they may come out in the daytime too. When the weather is dry, a snail glues itself to a hard surface, such as the side of a plant pot, or seals the opening of its shell with a thin, papery layer of dried slime.
In cold weather it buries itself in the soil, seals its shell and becomes dormant until conditions improve. Garden snails can survive temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius, and they become active again between about 4.5 and 21.5 degrees Celsius.
Like most land snails, C. aspersum is nocturnal, emerging by day after rain (UF/IFAS). In dry conditions it adheres to a hard surface or closes its aperture with a parchment-like epiphragm to prevent desiccation, becoming active again in humid conditions.
In cold weather it burrows, seals the shell with hardened mucus and becomes dormant; the CFIA reports survival to -10 °C and activity between 4.5 and 21.5 °C. Low temperature and humidity reduce egg-laying, and dry soil cannot be dug into a nest, so reproduction tracks warm, damp spells. In a study published in The Veliger, snails seemed to use their lower tentacles to find each other during courtship.
Did you know?
Garden snails can even eat paper.
Besides plants, garden snails eat dead animal tissue and even paper.
The CFIA lists dead animal tissue and paper products among its foods.
A traveler and a pest
Garden snails live in many countries.
In some places they eat too many crops. Some birds, like ducks, eat snails.
The IUCN has not assessed the garden snail, and it now lives on every continent except Antarctica. Its story is about travel: people carried it around the world, and in some new places, like California, it has become a serious pest of crops and gardens.
Gardeners can protect plants by removing boards and piles of debris where snails hide, and some birds, especially ducks, eat them. Because snails hitch rides in plant pots, several US states have rules about plants brought in from other states.
Cornu aspersum has not been evaluated by the IUCN (Not Evaluated in GBIF's copy of the Red List). Its significance is as an introduced pest: UF/IFAS notes its intentional spread for food, accidental transport with plants and by collectors, and quarantine restrictions in states including Arizona, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Washington. The CFIA lists it among the invasive species on its plant-health pages.
Recommended management combines habitat reduction, copper barriers on tree trunks, baits and the release of the predatory decollate snail (UF/IFAS, citing University of California pest guidelines), Rumina decollata. Some birds, especially ducks, feed on garden snails.
Did you know?
Every garden snail is a boy and a girl at the same time.
Each garden snail is both male and female, and after mating, both snails lay eggs.
C. aspersum is hermaphroditic; cross-fertilization is normal, and both partners oviposit (CFIA).
Amazing facts
-
Every garden snail is a boy and a girl at the same time.
Each garden snail is both male and female, and after mating, both snails lay eggs.
C. aspersum is hermaphroditic; cross-fertilization is normal, and both partners oviposit (CFIA).
-
A snail can close its shell with a door made of dried slime.
In dry weather, a snail seals its shell opening with a thin, papery layer of dried mucus.
The epiphragm, a parchment-like mucus seal, prevents desiccation during dormancy (UF/IFAS).
-
Garden snails can even eat paper.
Besides plants, garden snails eat dead animal tissue and even paper.
The CFIA lists dead animal tissue and paper products among its foods.
-
Some garden snails were brought to America to be eaten.
Garden snails were brought to California in the 1850s to be cooked as escargot.
Introduced to California in the 1850s as escargot, it became a major citrus and garden pest (UF/IFAS).
Words to know
- mollusc
- a member of the animal group that includes snails, slugs and octopuses
- tentacle
- a long, bendy feeler
- whorl
- one full turn of a spiral shell
- mucus
- slime made by an animal's body
- hermaphrodite
- an animal that is both male and female
- nocturnal
- active at night
- epiphragm
- a seal of dried slime a snail makes over its shell opening
Discovery challenge
-
Where are a snail's eyes?
Where are a garden snail's eyes?
Which tentacles of a garden snail are eye stalks?
- On the tips of the long upper tentacles
- On its shell
- On its foot
Show the answer
On the tips of the long upper tentacles
Its eyes are on top of the tall feelers.
The two long upper tentacles are eye stalks with eyes at the tips.
The upper pair; the lower pair are thought to be olfactory.
-
When do garden snails like to come out?
When are garden snails most active?
What is the garden snail's usual activity pattern?
- At night and after rain
- Only at noon on sunny days
- Never
Show the answer
At night and after rain
Snails come out at night and after it rains.
They are nocturnal but may come out in the day after rain.
Nocturnal, with daytime activity after rain; inactive when dry or cold.
-
What helps a snail slide along?
What helps a garden snail glide on its foot?
What do the glands of the snail's foot secrete?
- Slime
- Wheels
- Feathers
Show the answer
Slime
Slime helps the snail slide.
Glands in the foot make mucus all the time, which helps it glide.
Mucus, secreted continuously, which lubricates locomotion and forms the trail.
-
Where do snails lay their eggs?
Where does a garden snail lay its eggs?
Where does Cornu aspersum oviposit?
- In a little nest in the soil
- In a bird's nest
- In the sea
Show the answer
In a little nest in the soil
They dig a little hole in the soil.
Each snail digs a nest 2.5 to 4 centimeters deep with its foot.
In a nest excavated in soil, concealed with soil, mucus and excrement.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Name the main body parts of a snail and what they do.
- Describe how a snail survives dry and cold weather.
- Describe the snail life cycle from egg to adult.
- Understand how people spread animals to new places, and what can happen next.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 12 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might snails come out mostly at night and after rain?
- How could a snail travel from Europe to California?
- Is a garden snail a helper or a pest? Does it depend on where it lives?
Try at home or in class
- Place a snail gently on a clear plastic sheet and look underneath to watch the ripples in its foot as it moves; wash hands afterward and return the snail.
- Measure a garden snail's shell with a ruler and compare it with the 28 to 32 millimeters of a full-grown adult.
Key vocabulary: mollusc, tentacle, whorl, mucus, hermaphrodite, nocturnal, epiphragm
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Brown Garden Snail, Cornu aspersum (Müller, 1774) (EENY240) , University of Florida IFAS Extension (EDIS)
- Cornu aspersum (European brown garden snail) fact sheet , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
- Effects of antennectomy, dehydration and superhydration on the movements of Helix aspersa (Nash and Herzberg, The Veliger 6(3)) , Internet Archive (BioStor)
- Helix aspersa Müller, 1774 (Virginia land snails) , Carnegie Museum of Natural History
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 28, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.