In 2022 a snail came into my life. And stayed.

Late last winter, my mom, being a curious woman, brought a few snails inside to see what would happen. By furnishing them with a moist, temperate, and secure environment brimming with epicurean delights, she inadvertently created the perfect conditions for snail boinking.

Soon, my mom had 29 adoptable baby snails. I took one home and named it Mapfire.

Baby vs. adult Mapfire.

I have had Mapfire for nearly a year. At first, she was half the size of my pinky nail and nearly translucent. Now, her shell is a dark brown and an inch across. I clean her tank weekly and change her food every few days; her favorite fare is crisp romaine lettuce.

Mapfire is a great source of amusement on a budget. As a gastropod (Latin for belly-footed), she races through the world on her stomach, averaging a pace of 1.3 centimeters (1/2 inch) per second — quick enough to teach me not to let my guard down. Once, while I was momentarily distracted, she escaped her tank and started eating my mail. After looking up what paper is made from, I wasn’t surprised she succumbed to the temptation of processed food. Paper is made of cellulose, which is a structural element in plants. My electric bill was snail pizza in her eyes.

Through observation and play, we have formed quite a human-snail bond, or at least I like to think so. She’s curious and often reaches for my fingers when I try to set her down. For playtime, I let her crawl on my arms or clothes and other safe surfaces, like old cups or the bathtub. Afterwards I wash everything she touches because snails can host parasites, including, in warmer climates, a nematode that can cause meningitis in humans.

I know Mapfire enjoys her time with me, based on her behavior. Snails will produce a protective foam when scared or annoyed, but, with me, Mapfire is all slime all the time. The slime trails she leaves on my arms are not, however, chemically identical. Snails produce different slime variations based on their needs. If she’s defying gravity she will produce stickier, thicker slime; if she wants to glide along, she’ll excrete slicker, more fluid slime. Some snails can produce a defensive toxic slime to coat exposed dorsal areas, like the upper body and head.

Snail slime isn’t any ordinary goo, but a liquid crystal. Liquid crystal is the fourth state of matter, partly a liquid and partly a solid. Essentially, it exhibits orderly patterns of organization on the molecular level, like a solid, but it flows like a liquid. Soapy water is an example.

There are two main categories of terrestrial (land) snails: native and non-native. The native snail you are most likely to see is the Pacific sideband snail (Monadenia fidelis). Part of its range is the Pacific Northwest — the Salish Sea — spanning from Budd Inlet in Olympia, Washington, up north to the Discovery Islands in British Columbia, Canada.

Holding a baby Pacific sideband snail.

Native Pacific sideband snail. photo by Brandon Drucker

Mapfire is one of the two most common types of non-native snails, a common garden snail (Cornu aspersum), which are typically duller shades of brown with less defined banding. The other common species is the grove or lemon snail (Cepaea nemoralis), which are bright to faded shades of yellow and brown with deeply defined banding.

Mapfire, as you can see, is a rather unrelieved brown, but she is far from boring. Even though I have gendered her as female, she is, like all land snails, a hermaphrodite, housing both female and male reproductive organs. One of these organs is world famous, for it comes to us cloaked in the popular lore of cupid: the love dart.

The love dart is a tiny arrow that snails shoot into each other when mating. But gastropode aim is terrible! Sometimes the love dart can end up killing the receiving snail or lodging itself partially in the body. The point of the love dart, though, is to ensure that the pierced snail uses all the sperm from the sender, which is accomplished by special hormones in the mucus coating the love dart. Many scholars claim this eccentric mating ritual, which can be observed by the naked eye, is the origin of the ancient Roman god of love, Cupid — but surely dating singles can appreciate that “OkSnail” doesn’t have the same amorous ring as “OkCupid.”

The problem with non-native snails is us. These snails are synanthropic creatures, which means they thrive in environments created by humans, like gardens, flowerbeds, agricultural fields, abandoned overgrown lots, or any land disturbed by human activity. To quote a famous movie line, “If you build it, they will come.”

Non-native snails have a couple of habits that make them hard to eradicate: they are generalists, which means they nosh on a wide variety of foods; they can estivate (hibernate) when the surrounding environment becomes too hot, cold, or dry; and, they are nocturnal and like to wreak havoc while you sleep.

Combined, these factors mean that non-native snails can easily adapt to a variety of ecological niches. And, of course, the French immigrant who craved the flavors of home wasn’t considering this when he asked his family in France to send him some garden snails in the mail. While breeding them for food, a few escaped and quickly adapted to their new environment in California and beyond.

This is just one of the many ways non-native snails have been introduced to North America, a process that follows the human story of commerce and colonization (most non-natives come from Europe). Today, plant nurseries are a leading contributor to their spread; tiny eggs hitchhike a ride on the plants that go straight to your yard or garden. Snails also arrive on imported fruits and veggies.

Adolescent Mapfire on the move.

Mapfire is one of those frivolous but necessary things in my life. She has taught me to slow down, to observe, to appreciate. She makes me a better naturalist and a better human. She is an unloved being in this world, a member of the unloved animal club along with mice and spiders. Because of her, I think more about the lives of the unloved, deepening my understanding of life.

Sure, it doesn’t feel like any big accomplishment watching her summit the tip of my finger, but it’s one of those little details that makes a life — my life. Mapfire is a gentle reminder of how I want to be in this world, how I want to move — at my own pace — which lies somewhere between human and gastropod.

While the Pacific sideband, garden, and groves snails can be easily spotted around the Salish Sea, in reality there’s an unidentified number of snails in the region. Snails are incredibly understudied.

“Until we have good genetics work, for example,” says Clarissa Dirks, a molecular biologist at The Evergreen State College, “we can’t easily identify them, so we won’t even know when we have new species around you.” Dirks has studied snails under top malacology (study of mollusks) researchers at the University of Hawaii and has taken her students into the field in Olympia to conduct snails surveys, turning up “examples of what may be previously unknown species.”

So don’t be surprised if one day you come across a strange looking snail. Possibly a new species, local malacologists will be waiting for your call!

How One Italian Company Milks Slime Out Of Thousands Of Snails. Business Insider, Aug 14, 2022.

The Love Dart. The Living World of Mollusks.

SLIME Pacific Northwest. iNaturalist and Burke Museum.

Malacology (SNAILS & SLUGS) with Jann Vendetti.” Alie Ward, Ologies Podcast. June 16, 2018. 

The slowest invasion: Non-native snails take over Northwest. Chris Winters,  The Herald. June 25, 2016. 

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