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Sticker of Green garden snail
Bug card No. 2063 of 4,939

Green garden snail

Cantareus apertus
Eats: PlantsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The green garden snail has a smooth, olive green shell. It comes from the warm lands around the Mediterranean Sea. When the weather is hot and dry, it digs itself into the ground and takes a long nap.

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
Around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe and North Africa, and brought to California, Louisiana and Western Australia
Length
2.2 to 2.8 cm (0.87 to 1.1 in)
the width of the shell
Top speed
about 0.03 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Wash your hands after touching it, like after touching any wild animal.
What does it eat?
It eats plants. In some countries people worry it could damage farm crops.
For real!Photo of Green garden snail
Picture by Vollrath Wiese. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Green garden snail about 2.8 cm long (1.1 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 5 grains of rice in a rowneeds 2 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Green garden snail compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In hot, dry weather it burrows about 7 to 15 centimetres into the soil and waits for rain.

2

Before its long nap it closes its shell with a white lid made of dried slime.

3

On the island of Crete it is busy for only three or four months after the first autumn rains.

4

In France it is protected and may not be collected to sell.

you asked

Most asked questions about Green garden snail

?What colour is the green garden snail?

Its shell is olive green, with a large last round.

?Where does the green garden snail live?

Around the Mediterranean Sea, and it has also moved to California, Louisiana and Western Australia.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cantareus apertus
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Helicidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Helicidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, North America, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Cantareus apertus (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 Vollrath Wiese. Public domain, 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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