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Sticker of Giant African land snail
Bug card No. 1825 of 4,939

Giant African land snail

Lissachatina fulica
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The giant African land snail is one of the biggest land snails in the world. Its brown, pointy shell can grow 20 centimetres long, longer than a pencil. It comes from East Africa, but people carried it to many warm countries.

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
East Africa, and now many warm places in Asia, the Pacific islands and the Americas, in gardens and fields
Length
7 cm (2.8 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Dangerous: look, do not touch
It can carry germs that make people sick. Look, do not touch, and tell a grown-up if you find one, and always wash your hands after touching any snail.

Watch out! Read how to stay safe on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It eats lots and lots of plants, including farm crops and garden plants. That is why farmers do not want it around.
For real!Photo of Giant African land snail
Picture by Alexander R. Jenner. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Giant African land snail about 7 cm long (2.8 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 72 seconds

How big is Giant African land snail compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its eggs are white, about 5 millimetres long, and have a thin hard shell like tiny bird eggs.

2

A baby snail's shell is only about 5 millimetres long when it hatches.

3

Young snails have stripy brown and cream shells, but the new parts that grow later are smooth and shiny brown.

4

It is the snail that most often moves into new countries where it does not belong.

5

In the United States it is against the law to sell or keep one.

you asked

Most asked questions about Giant African land snail

?How big do giant African land snails get?

The shell can be 20 centimetres long or more and about 7 centimetres wide.

?What do giant African land snails eat?

They eat many kinds of plants, including crops and garden plants.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lissachatina fulica
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Achatinidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Achatinidae
Lives on
Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, North America, South America
Also known as
Giant African snail

Where the facts come from

  1. Lissachatina fulica (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 Alexander R. Jenner. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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