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Sticker of Turkish snail
Bug card No. 4463 of 4,939

Turkish snail

Helix lucorum
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Turkish snail is a big land snail with a round shell. It breathes air and carries its house on its back. People in some countries cook and eat it as escargots.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect at all, it has no legs! But kids find it on every bug hunt, so it lives in Bug Wiki too.
Lives in
Turkey, the Caucasus and the Balkans, and now many other parts of Europe and Asia
Length
3.5 to 6 cm (1.4 to 2.4 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.04 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Wash your hands after holding one, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
Like other big land snails, it eats plants.
For real!Photo of Turkish snail
Picture by Petar Iankov, http://www.ImagesFromBulgaria.com. CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Turkish snail about 6 cm long (2.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 90 seconds

How big is Turkish snail compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A grown-up snail weighs about 20 to 25 grams, as much as a few big coins.

2

Its egg is only about 4 millimetres wide.

3

People have carried it to many new places, even to London and Prague.

4

Scientists check its body to find out if the soil where it lives is polluted.

you asked

Most asked questions about Turkish snail

?How big is the Turkish snail?

Its shell is about 3.5 to 6 centimetres wide.

?Can you eat the Turkish snail?

Yes. In some countries people cook it as escargots.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Helix lucorum
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Helicidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Helicidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Helix lucorum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Petar Iankov, http://www.ImagesFromBulgaria.com. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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