Chocolate Banded Snails

The post arrived with an odd round container shape pressing out from inside of a letter size envelope. No return address. Upon opening the envelope I discovered a little taped up plastic container, with four small holes in the top. Carefully inspecting the container, turning it to the side, I could see what looked to be two shells, holes facing one another taped together. Yes, you read that right, the shells inside of the taped up container were taped together and inside those shells were what I hoped were live snails

 

I don’t know how I thought they would arrive but it wasn’t like this. I guess I had an idea of them crawling around freely in a moist container with some kind of vegetation to eat. The sight was a bit unsettling, however after a bit of contemplating this was likely the safest way for them to travel. So the shipper was likely not being some terrible person but was trying to protect them on the ride. I can’t really think of why someone would do this otherwise.

I quickly untapped them and to my surprise one was moving around inside his shell and actually starting to come out. I peeked into the other shell and I feared the worse as there was no movement and a solid black color. After a bit of warm running water, the first snail happily came out to see his new home. (Picture above)

As for the second snail, I held him for about an hour hoping that he just needed to get warmed up, placed him in a container with a heating pad under it. After about an hour of no movement :/, I started to get worried. I tried several times to mist him and gently run warm water over him. After about 3 hours, the continued use of the heating pad, warm water and several tempting food options the second snail fianlly made his appearance.

Radish seemed to be his favorite food item 🙂 If you follow the link you can see him eating and you can actually see the food pass through his head, really neat. Youtube Link -Chocolate Banded Snail

I will definitely take more videos and hopefully capture the eating a bit closer and clearer. But for now, they are safe and happy in their new home. 

Basic Information:

Eobania vermiculata 

or the Chocolate Banded Snail –

This species is a large land snail and it is commonly seen anywhere from Eastern Spain over to Crimea near the Black Sea.This snail also has non-indigenous populations in Belgium, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, the USA, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabi, and many other places. These snails can survive winters in negative temperatures, and can also adapt well to dryer conditions.