Where Do Snails Live? Where Do You Usually Find Them?

Most people have seen only the garden snail, but the gastropod class contains many snails with unique appearances.

Some types of snails include nerites, apple snails, and ramshorn snails. All of these creatures have different appearances and characteristics.

The most common appearance of the snail is that it has a soft tube-shaped body, one or two pairs of tentacles popping out from the head, eyes located at the base of the tentacles, and a slippery muscular foot to move around. Its body is very fragile.

The soft body or mantle covers the internal organs. Snails do not have ears; they interconnect with the help of touch and vibration. Another interesting fact is that snails are hermaphrodites; a single snail can have male and female reproductive organs.

If you enjoy reading our article, you may also love to read about how many teeth do snails have and how long can a snail sleep?

Where do snails live during the day?

Snails belong to the phylum Mollusca. Snails make 80% of the mollusks and have adapted well to all habitat types. Snails love to reside in trees, plants, under the rocks or leaves, soil, sand, lakes, rivers, and oceans. Land snails cannot stay in water for a more extended period when too much water enters their habitat.

Snails are found everywhere around the world. Its habitat comprises high mountains, gardens, parks underneath the rocks in the sea. So, snails are usually found everywhere on the planet, including the rivers, lakes, oceans, home lawns, parks, forests, mountains, and deserts.

The thickness of a snail's shell depends on the type of climatic conditions. In dry and desert regions, snails have thick shells to hold moisture. Whereas in wet and rainy regions, these species have thin shells.

Snails hibernate during the winter season. The multiple lines present on the shell of snails protect their soft bodies from their predators during the hibernation period.

It digs small holes in the ground and hibernates by withdrawing inside the shell and sealing the entrance with mucus to avoid predators. Their shell protects them and helps the body to move without injuring them. Their shells are made of calcium carbonate.

During the day, snails live in damp places. You will find them under the stones, logs, or any underground cover. Snails also hide under the planters and any damp shady areas. At night time, the snail comes out to eat. These species produce mucus with the help of which they move around.

Where do snails like to live in the garden?

All the different snail species need water, food, oxygen, adequate humidity, and the right temperature to survive. The snail likes to reside in the leaf of trees and plants, jungles, forests, wetlands, oil fields, and in inhabited areas, they are in the lawns, gardens, fields, swamps, suburbs, riverbanks, and even in the damp areas of the city buildings.

Snails can survive both in natural and habited areas.

In the garden, snails like to live in the leaves of the potted plants, garden furniture, hedgerows, marshes, ponds, leaves of vegetables, under the rocks, cracks, crevices, fixtures, and damp areas of the garden. You can also find them under the sticks and leaves.

In the winter season, you will find them hiding in the ground in the same area.

If you turn your garden pots and stones in wet areas, you will find snails. During the rainy season, you will find garden snails crawling on plants or anything wet.

Where can snails be found?

Snails can be found around the world. There are even snails that in the Antarctic Ocean. Over thousands of different types species of snails are located around the world. They are divided into freshwater snails, land snails, and saltwater or sea snails.

Snails are hermaphrodite animals; a single snail can have the reproductive organs of both males and females. However, sometimes two snails mate to produce eggs. The snail lays eggs a few weeks after mating.

Snails are usually found where the temperature is warm and humid, and there is food. However, there are snail's whose habitats comprise dry, cold, and high mountains. Some species of snails stay in the deserts like Africa and the Middle East.

Different species of snails like the Roman snail have adapted well to their surroundings' evolution. It means that gastropods with thick shell coverings, their bodies will be able to survive in the desert. Snails and slugs are slimy creatures, but slugs don't have shells to cover their body.

Snails are primarily found in the gardens, backyard, fields, under the rocks, swamps, suburbs, riverbanks, freshwater, ponds, and stones. But the most interesting fact about them is that they are distributed around the world.

Snail Habitat And Distribution

Snails are mollusks, and they belong to the class Gastropods. Snails and slugs comprise 80 percent of the mollusks. However, slugs do not have any shells.

You can find snails everywhere, in your garden, on the wet walls of your buildings, and under the damp areas. Land snails or terrestrial snails are nocturnal animals.

However, during the rainy season, you can find them outside. They are found in diverse habitats such as parks, gardens, hedgerows, under the piles of wood, rocks, crevices, wetlands, ponds, riverbanks, oceans, forests, jungles, and agricultural fields. Marine or sea snails are found 6561 ft (2000 m) above sea level.

Gastropods are located worldwide, even in the Antarctic and Arctic oceans and the tropical rainforest regions. These animals get easily adapted to both aquatic and terrestrial kinds of environments. Some snails survive in water, and some on land.

Terrestrial snail species, snails of these species, are widely distributed around the world. They are commonly found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and even the Arctic and Antarctic regions. In North America, around 500 species of snails exist.

Where do snails like to live outside?

Thanks to the mucus the snail secretes, they can quickly move around on all surfaces. You can see them crawling around in rocks, thorny bushes, and plants, coarse walls, leaves, mosses, crevices, and even in the cracks.

Land snails prefer to live outside under the rocks, leaves, ditches, under the woods, and damp corners of the houses to protect themselves from their predators.

The land snail's like to stay in cool and damp places where the environment is wet and are out of reach of sun rays. If you want to see a snail visit your garden, you will find them in a cool, damp, shaded place.

Types Of Snail Habitats According To Their Species

As snails have adapted well to the different types of environment, they occupy many places. Since they are distributed in various habitats, it is not difficult to locate them.

Consider a Garden snail habitat. The garden snail is native to the Mediterranean region, but they are widely distributed around the world.

These land snails prefer a temperate climate. You will find this land snail crawling on the leaves, munching on vegetables, moving around in your garden, wild forests, farmland, meadows, agricultural fields, and wherever it is greenery. This animal species habitat is called Helix aspersa.

Did you know that Helix snails species are even served in restaurants and called escargot? This escargot recipe is served in France. Escargot species are found in different parts of Europe.

As the name Giant African land snail habitat suggests, the giant African land snail is a large species. Now it is found in different parts of the world, except in Antarctica.

These animals are native to only some of the African countries. You can easily distinguish them with their light brown shell, which has dark stripes, the shell act as a protective layer.

Giant African land snails prefer hot and humid climates. These land snail's habitat includes riverbanks, wetlands, shrubs, streams, riverbanks, forests, gardens, shrubs, and urban areas.

The next type is the Roman snail habitat. The Roman snail is a land snail, and it is also widely distributed around the world. These species are located in Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia, and America. 

The Roman snail prefers mild temperatures, low sunlight, and high humidity, and its habitats comprise vineyards, bushes, temperate forests, and regions with rainfall. The Roman snail hibernates during the cold winter months. These land snails dig holes on the grounds, make their way inside the shell, and seal the entrance with mucus. The shell protects them from predators.

How To Make A Garden Snail Habitat

Raising a garden snail is an easy process as you do not have to do much for them. These species are the easiest to handle.

The lifespan is around five years in the wild, but sometimes they can survive up to 20 years with better care. It means that minimal effort is required to maintain a garden snail as your pet.

Want to make a garden snail habitat? Well! It is quite an easy process. You need to buy a terrarium first and follow the steps mentioned below:

Find an empty box made of glass or plastic. The size of the terrarium can depend on how many snails you will keep. In a 5 gal (22.7304 L) tank, you can keep two snails. If you wish to keep many snails, you must get more than 10 gals (45.4609 L) tanks.

Make holes on the box for proper ventilation, allowing the air to flow in and out easily. Also, please do not make the holes too big as they might escape.

If you reside in icy regions, you don't have to provide them extra heating unless you plan to leave the house.

Put a layer of dirt or soil on the bottom or surface of the box or habitat. However, make sure that the layer of dirt does not contain any pesticides or chemicals; otherwise, it would harm them.

Snails are fun to watch. You can see them crawling on rocks, leaves, pieces of bark, branches, and anything they love crawling with their slippery foot.

Throw some food inside the box for snails to eat. Some big snails also eat the empty shells of snails.

Lastly, put them inside in a box where you can enjoy watching them.

Maintenance Of Your Homemade Snail Habitat

Snails are easy to take care of as pets, especially for first-time beginners. They are low-maintenance animals. Snails enjoy the company of the humans. 

If you take proper care of these animal species, they will live for years. They can easily survive in diverse habitats. 

Make sure to provide this animal species with the best soil layer at the surface of the terrarium. 

If you have brought a snail from the wild to keep as a pet, take proper precautions to avoid diseases.

Maintenance of the homemade snail habitat is an easy task. However, it would help if you did a few chores to make it homely and enjoy the company of the humans.

Every one to three days feeds them with food, their food range from rotten and decaying matters to fresh leaves.

Since the snail requires high humid environment, spray clean water once or twice daily.

Although the shells of snails protect their body, it is crucial to keep snails away from the sun's rays and freezing weather. As shells are made of calcium carbonate, their nutrients must comprise calcium.

So, if you are interested in making a DIY habitat for your snail, go for it.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created many interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for where do snails live, then why not take a look at how long do snails live or snail facts?