My Case for the Snail
Iliana’s Snails. Photo by Iliana Garner.
While some college students may immediately crash on their bed after entering their dorm, I always make sure to greet my snails after I step through the door.
Let me introduce myself: I’m Iliana, a first year journalism student and I own two loveable snails.
Like many Gen-Zers, I had a love-hate relationship with TikTok. On one hand, I would spend upwards of four hours a day on the app. On the other hand, it enabled me to realize my love for snails. One fast-motion clip of a snail consuming an apple slice twice its size had me hooked. I went down a rabbithole, excessively consuming snail videos like I was a sticky iPad kid binge-watching Cocomelon.
These creatures, typically overlooked for their slimy nature and creepy (but cute!) faces, have more to them than meets the eye. For starters, even though their mouth is the size of a pin, they can have over 20,000 teeth. Not only that, but those teeth are a hundred times stronger than ours, capable of withstanding the pressure it takes to turn carbon into a diamond. All that strength for one little apple slice.
Finally, after watching TikTok creators who owned snails, I resolved to get some of my own when I turned 18. However, I soon found out I couldn’t wait that long. I was in a lonely place, swamped with college applications and stuck in my room for winter break. I needed a friend. So, with the money I saved from my last summer job, I made the decision to buy two snails and the supplies needed to care for them
**DISCLAIMER: DON’T BUY YOUR SNAILS FROM AMAZON**
Unfortunately, that’s what I ended up doing. I was unaware that shipping snails across state borders, in addition to being illegal, was very dangerous for the animals. Additionally, the seller did not include a heat pack to keep the little guys warm during the chilly fall weather. But, miraculously, they arrived healthy and active. I named the one with the lighter shell Wilbur and the one with the swirly brown shell Gogo (Short for Mango).
Gogo was immediately comfortable in his home, making laps around the enclosure and exploring every corner of every plastic decoration I bought to keep them entertained. Wilbur was a little slower at warming up, but after a while, he became even more energetic than Gogo. To this day, the two remain the best friends I could ask for through the trials and tribulations of college life.
The best pet anyone could have
No, snails aren’t as fluffy as dogs, nor as intelligent as Parrots, but contrary to popular belief, they do have brains. Their cerebral ganglia is located at the tip of their mushy heads and gives them the ability to learn and make surprisingly complex decisions. These are complex decisions, but they’re not always good decisions. This shouldn’t be shocking, given that snails only use two brain cells to make their higher order judgments.
Sometimes, they’ll reach the very top of their enclosure only to curl back into their shells and fall back down to the dirt because they lost the suction that was keeping them hanging. But who am I to judge when they can only see blurry light and dark shapes?
Despite all this, they are hands down the best pet anyone can own. They’re like owning plants, if plants could move from place to place and leave a slimy trail in the dirt.
I spray their enclosure with water once or twice a day. They’re most happy when they’re damp. Other people who I’ve talked to in the r/Snail Discord server (a lovely community of fellow snail owners) have automated machines that constantly spray mist, but it’s not required. Snails also need calcium, which you can find in egg shells, cuttlebones, human teeth, dead baby snails, or snail-specific calcium blends online. Gogo and Wilbur’s blend is fruit flavored.
Snails also eat a healthy diet of fruits or veggies. I find Northwestern’s dining hall best suited for providing this. Every two weeks, I’ll bring up a few pieces of lettuce, cauliflower, or cantaloupe. I may get weird looks from dining hall workers as I hold an ozzie filled with two singular pieces of melon, but they don’t know I have a family to feed!
Snails fare best in heat, so if you have a glass enclosure and don’t live near any fire hazards (#PlexProblems), I highly recommend getting them a heat pad.
Recently, I moved Gogo and Wilbur into my dorm. They seem to absolutely despise Evanston weather (specifically, the weather in my dorm), given Gogo hasn’t budged since October and Wilbur only moves when sprayed. However, I’ve been looking into ways to keep them warmer that won’t result in Plex West being burned to the ground.
Snail ownership is a journey. I’ve gotten a lot of things wrong in my time as a snail parent, but I’ve learned through my mistakes. Don’t take my words as gospel when making the decision to adopt your own slimy friends. Do your own research. I’ve found that r/Snails and other online communities are more than willing to answer all your snail-related questions. Yes, even the frantic queries that start with, “My snail has been in hibernation for two weeks, what do I do?!?”
What my snails taught me
Besides becoming a better caregiver, I’ve grown a lot since the time I started owning snails. For starters, I entered college and became an adult, something that still seems surreal when I reflect back on it. I’m not living with my parents anymore — I’m doing my own laundry, making my own bed, and calling myself down to dinner.
At the beginning of fall quarter, the change felt isolating. I made so many friends the first weeks of school that the loneliness of living without my family in the other room didn’t hit until halfway through the quarter. I would shut myself in my room; I contemplated the choices that led me to that moment. Through all that, my snails were there for me
Even though I didn’t have a roommate to rant to, I knew my snails would always lend a metaphorical ear whenever I needed to release my frustrations. The consistency that caring for snails provided me made me feel like I had a reason to leave my room, go down to the dining hall, and pick up some food for Gogo and Wilbur.
Snails are well-known for being the slowest creatures. It would take a snail over 33 hours to travel a mile, if it could focus for that long. And yet, they still live happy and peaceful lives. Learning to become an adult and being content with living alone doesn’t have to be a race. I don’t have to wake up the day after move-in and be totally fine with not seeing my parents for months. My progression into adulthood can go as slow as I want and need it to go. Even if I’m behind my peers, I can be content that I’m working towards it at my own pace. Even if my own pace is a snail’s pace.
Their role in nature
Besides living in my dorm, you can find these little miracle makers everywhere, and they work hard to keep their local communities healthy.
As winter envelops Evanston and we don our puffy jackets, snails find patches of soft topsoil to bury themselves in for hibernation season.
But after hibernation comes spring. Spring is a snail’s favorite season: it’s that perfect combination of warm weather and rainy climate. If you find yourself walking around Evanston on a damp spring night, you may find yourself surrounded by the creatures.
If you do, I want you to stop and think about the impact these little animals have on our wider world. Snails help recycle prime organic material back into the ecosystem by eating decaying leaves and pooping them back into the soil. Ew, right?
However, this poop enriches the soil you walk on today. The nutrient-rich snail poop provides a bed for beautiful roses, sunflowers, and tulips to grow. Without them, we may not be able to grow the crops that are essential to our diets.
Additionally, they play an important role as pollinators. Pollen grains from sweet-smelling flowers get stuck to their slimy bodies, which they carry to other blooms. What makes them different from bees and other pollinators? Well, they do the bulk of their work during rainy weather, when other pollinators and insects are inactive. It’s like having TA office hours when your professors are away on vacation!
Even in the afterlife, a snail’s body contains essential nutrients, especially calcium, that many birds, snakes, beetles, and more feed on. Although I personally scorn the idea of these loveable creatures being food, it is undeniable that they play a major role in maintaining a healthy food chain.
Snails are more than just pests or slimy monsters. They play many roles: decomposers, pollinators, primary consumers, and best friends.