eats the lush suburban vegetable patch
- Size
- Shell: 3–5 cm
- Lifespan
- 2–5 years
- Diet
- Herbivorous: feeds on wide range of living and decaying plant material including leaves, flowers, fruit and seedlings. Uses rasping radula to scrape food. Major pest of vegetable gardens and crops.
- Habitat
- Gardens, parks, compost heaps and damp corners of suburban yards. The uninvited guests of the vegetable patch, thriving wherever humans have planted lush, green food.
- Range
- Throughout North and South Islands in gardens, parks, compost heaps and agricultural areas. Most common in lowland urban and suburban regions with mild, damp conditions.
- Endemism
- Introduced
- Main Threats
- None. This introduced pest is widespread and abundant. Controlled using bait and physical barriers in gardens, though some populations have developed resistance to common molluscicides.
- Population
- Originally from Europe, arrived with early settlers and has since become ubiquitous. Considered a pest in agriculture and horticulture due to appetite for seedlings, but also a food source (escargot) for some.
- Conservation Status
- Introduced
- Human Risk
- caution
- Handling Note
- introduced pest, potential rat lungworm vector do not handle
- Conservation Note
- Introduced land snail; common in gardens and not subject to conservation assessment.
- Te Ao Māori
- The Garden Snail has no traditional Māori name or significance. It arrived with the ships of the colonists, a stowaway in the soil of potted plants. In the modern context, it represents the shadow ecosystem of the suburbs, the creatures that thrive in the margins of human activity. A reminder that our gardens are shared spaces, even with those we did not invite.
It is not native. The ultimate slow-living enthusiast. A snail that carries its house on its back.
Encased in a spiral, brown-and-yellow mottled shell, the garden snail carries its home on its back, a portable fortress that allows it to survive dry spells by sealing itself inside with a layer of dried mucus. A snail that never has to pack.
When the rain falls, the seal breaks, and the snail emerges on a carpet of its own making. A trail of slime reduces friction and protects its soft, muscular foot from sharp objects. It is a creature of the night and the damp. During the day, it hides under pots, planks or dense leaves, entering a state of torpor.
At dusk, it begins its slow patrol of the garden, using two pairs of tentacles to navigate. The upper pair holds its eyes, capable of detecting light and shadow. The lower pair acts as a nose and touch sensor, tasting the air for the scent of lettuce, strawberries and tender shoots.
Its mouth is equipped with a radula, a tongue-like ribbon covered in thousands of microscopic teeth that acts like a biological file, rasping away at plant tissue with surprising efficiency. Reproduction is complex. Every garden snail is a hermaphrodite, possessing both male and female reproductive organs.
When two snails meet, they engage in a bizarre courtship ritual that can involve the firing of love darts, calcium spikes shot into the partner's body to increase the chances of fertilisation.
The garden is damp. The snail crawls, leaving a silver trail, tentacles tasting the air. It does not know it is an immigrant. It does not know it is a hermaphrodite. It just wants to eat lettuce.
It has found a new home. It decided to stay. One slow, slippery inch at a time.