snail gel

[brunni]

Supposedly snail gel has a lot of healing properties that make it useful to restore skin and as an anti-wrinkle cream. So people gathered the mucus and made beauty products out of it.

Here is a sample chosen at random.



If you would rather use a gel than let a snail crawl across your face, you may be in the majority. I think if you want the healing properties, there is nowhere better to go than the source, though. You want snail gel, you get a snail(s).

[latebloomer]

They could have snail spas where people could pay to have snails crawling over them haha. Strangely enough I notice that my hands feel really warm for ages after handling my snails, maybe it boosts the circulation, even if you do wash your hands straight away.

[foghog]

The gell that is mostly used is the defensive gel, not the traveling slime from my understanding. so you can;t merely have a snail crawl on you to get it. one of the current ways they evidently get the defensive gels is by using small electro shocks on the snails. which doesn't cause them harm supposedly, but no ones asked the snails yet I don;t think.

[brunni]

you mean like a miniature electronic milking machine ?

[coyote]

What a waste of money. Some people will buy anything in a jar.

[latebloomer]

Too true coyote, and the fact that animals suffer for it doesn't seem to trouble them.

[foghog]

the slime is much better used as a adhesive actually for wet surfaces. It is well proven for that, and is very strong in some species. and is being used for such actually now commercially. and yes it is a electronic milking machine actually.....from my understanding it is merely low voltage wires across a plastic panel close together. they put the snails on and they cannot help but crawl across them and they modulate the frequency of the electricity going across the wires sort of like a stun gun is modulated to the frequency of our nervous system, but at a super low voltage that doesn't cause the snail to convulse or be injured, but tingles on them enough to cause the slime production. they then probably wash the snails off and the slime goes with the water and they put the snails back into their homes until next time.

[brunni]

foghog
You indicate 2 types of snail slime
- slithering slime, which I assume if excreted by the foot and lubricates the snail's passage. Traces of this kind of slime can be seen the "day after" around your garden.
- defensive slime, which is probably excreted by the rest of the exposed snail ( except the underneath of the foot ) when it feels stressed. This somehow repels predators.
Did I get this right ?

@ GALS owners
Advertisements for these products claim handlers working on snail farms noticed their hands were rejuvenated/wounds healed faster, etc. Do any of you notice differences after being slimed on ? Latebloomer did comment my hands feel really warm for ages after handling my snails.

Latebloomer's comment would indicate this feeling came from slithering slime, not defensive slime.

[foghog]

ya you got it right, it is produced by two glands one of which is by the mouth of the snail, which is the traveling slime. the traveling slime is translucent in a H aspersa for instance. the foamy/bubbly/defensive mucus is excreted from various types of secretory glands that are single cell glands in connective tissue (which is why it doesn't foam under it's foot and instead does so as if from under the shell lip, or around it's body). the actual defensive slime is different composition from different snail species though even. its basically the same, but different aspects of the proteins, lipids, calcium etc. amounts within its composition.

as for what her comment indicates, I care not.... nor do I see it's relevance. no one said 1) she didn't agitate her snail, as it is agitated in one of the pictures in the forum here clearly by foaming, nor 2) traveling mucus from snails did 'nothing' what I said was "The gell that is mostly used is the defensive gel, not the traveling slime from my understanding. " . so uhm

[coyote]

I don't handle my snails very much, and I keep the small European species anyway, so there is so little slime on my hands that it would be hard for me to tell if there's any difference. Plus, if I were to have a cut on my hand, I would either use a rubber glove before handling my snails or else wash my hands really well immediately after, so there would be little chance for that hypothesis to be tested in my household anyway.

[pinkunicorn]

How is this product actually made? Do they milk the snails (and how?) or kill them? :/ I recall seeing some snail cream that apparently involved killing and mashing snails... How people will abuse animals for beauty (and other stuff, but that's another topic) never ceases to amaze me.

[foghog]

no it is not made by smashing snails usually. I explained the current process (pun intended.) above. it is a specific cycle and frequency of electricity that causes agitation, but not said to cause pain, or death and done to batches of snails at the same time, usually Helix Aspersa in fact for the snail cremes from what various articles say. and other species for the adhesives/glues.

[pinkunicorn]

Oh, yes. I missed half the posts the first time I read this as I was too irritated by the sheer idea...

At least they don't kill the poor little creatures.

Maybe I will test the healing powers of the slime with my aspersas. I bet there's not a lot of the active ingredients in the cream anyway. Need the real thing (aka a snail crawling on your skin) for the real effects. ;D

[foghog]

heh maybe. I have been testing the 'defensive' slime of Aspersa for awhile now and what puzzles me is, though I have seen many references about it, as well as the differences in composition of it compared to traveling mucus, I have found that snails emitting it are in no way shape or form treated even slightly different (That I can tell so far.) from those emitting traveling slime. for instance, other snails do not ignore them or refuse to crawl all over them, etc. So I wonder on the validity of it even being called that....I would definitely call it 'stressed' mucus though, as that is obviously when Aspersa emit it at least.

[coyote]

A mouthful of foamy defensive slime would probably put off a predator trying to eat the snail.

[foghog]

ya maybe, just never heard of it actually working. predators eat em up without hesitation from all I've seen. Ihave never heard of one instance it has actually worked. has anyone else?

[coyote]

It's not a fool-proof deterrent, but I'm sure it succeeds often enough that the snails keep on doing it.

[brunni]

Maybe snails don't want to spread this kind of gossip around ? Let 'em think the defensive slime works real good !

[pinkunicorn]

I recall reading somewhere that the foam is in particular against smaller predators like ants and others that could get inside the shell to do damage. They get stuck in the foam and the snail can shrug them off and continue on its way.

[brunni]

I can imagine if you are a little snail sliming around on the ground, something like an ordinary ant would be a formidable opponent. So it makes sense that they produce some kind of repellent to stay bug free.

[coyote]

That makes sense.

[foghog]

It does make sense...but I've observed snails in all sorts of situations, and they seem to not produce the slime at all defensively, only after they have been agitated, and they let ants crawl all over them, as well as pretty much everything else. I wonder if it is even voluntary frankly.