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Sticker of Ghost bulimulus
Bug card No. 1820 of 4,939

Ghost bulimulus

Bulimulus bonariensis
Name means: “bonariensis means from Buenos Aires”
Eats: Leftovers and dead thingsSnails, slugs and wormsGardens and meadowsNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The ghost bulimulus is a small land snail with a narrow, pointed shell that is white or light yellowish brown. Its soft body is white too, which may be why it is called a ghost. It comes from South America but is now spreading fast in the southern United States.

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
South America, and now the southern United States
Length
2.5 cm (0.98 in)
the length of the shell
Top speed
about 0.03 km/h (0.02 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. Wash your hands after touching snails.
What does it eat?
It mostly eats dead and rotting plant bits. Sometimes it nibbles young seedlings or plants that are already damaged.
For real!Photo of Ghost bulimulus
Picture by Laura Veronica Bianchi. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Ghost bulimulus about 2.5 cm long (0.98 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 4 grains of rice in a rowneeds 2 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Ghost bulimulus compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It buries its eggs in the soil, often about 40 at a time, and the babies hatch after about two weeks.

2

Each snail is first female and later both female and male at the same time.

3

It can live for one to three years and starts having babies at about six months old.

4

It was first found in Florida in 2009 and spread across the state in just a few years.

5

It likes to gather in damp spots.

you asked

Most asked questions about Ghost bulimulus

?Is the ghost bulimulus a pest?

It can be. It clogs farm watering equipment and gets mixed into peanut harvests.

?What does the ghost bulimulus eat?

Mostly dead and rotting plant material.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Bulimulus bonariensis
Named by
Rafinesque, 1833
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Bulimulidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Stylommatophora > Bulimulidae
Lives on
South America, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Bulimulus bonariensis (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 Laura Veronica Bianchi. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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