Big red worm in snail. It's out! See pics attached

[jembolina]

I've kept the whole family of snails that I found the other day (where my snail's girlfriend came from) and I've just noticed that one of the adults has a big red worm in him.

He's seemed the least active, happy and hungry of the lot, and doesn't move or eat a lot. His body is really retracted into his shell (the fleshy part that's stuck to the shell starts really far back).

I picked him up and thought he had a poo coming out but on closer inspection it looked different. I touched it with the end of a spoon as I was going to wipe it away to have a closer look and make sure it was normal poo, but when i toughed it it wriggled back up into the snail. He seems so miserable and I don't know what it is or how to get rid of it?

It looked like the end of the tail on the right hand side of this picture 4.bp.blogspot.com/-RGAyzmJkssw/TYjIZQ3UuRI/AAAAAAAAAQw/nmby3Jz9yyk/s1600/red-wiggler-worm.jpg

Any ideas???

[jembolina]

Also it was about the same diameter as the snail's poo hole, or a thick snail poo.

The snail is a helix aspersa.

[shaydeesnail]

I don't know a whole lot about parasites that infect snails, however it has been known for earthworms to accidentally climb up there. If you catch it in future I would suggest very gently trying to pull it out. If it seems stuck, don't tug on it though.

[pinkunicorn]

Get a pair of tweezers and keep an eye on the snail. Once you see the worm out again enough to get a firm hold, grab it and pull it out gently. No harsh tugging as said above. If it's stuck it could be a parasite. In that case I would cut a little bit off while maintaining firm grip of it (cut the piece off so your tweezers hold on to the remaining part) and hope it releases its grip.

If it's an earth worm you should be able to pull it out and you can release it in your garden. Earthworms are harmless and like said, could get into a snail accidentally as they crawl about.

[vallery]

I wonder should the snail be isolated from the others until the problem is solved in case the others get it?
vallery

[jembolina]

I kept him separated from the other snails as soon as I saw it. It hasn't come out and I haven't seen the worm/parasite since. The snail seems so sad and is barely eating or moving. He did do a poo the night I saw it so I don't know how he did that with a horrible thing inside him.
This morning his body was pulled in so far that I couldn't even see where he attached to the inside of his shell.
Is there any way to coax the worm/parasite out? I'm worried that the snail might be in a lot of pain.

[jembolina]

Also, after I first saw it I got some tweezers and waited for it to come out a bit again, which it did once, but it was too quick for me and I haven't seen it again since though I keep checking.

[shaydeesnail]

The snail can still poop as the anus is separate from the breathing hole, I hope it comes out soon! I wish I could think of a way to help you get him out

[jembolina]

Oh! Then I saw it in his anus, not the breathing hole. I'm not even sure where they breathe out of then... I guess breathing out of the butt doesn't make a lot of sense.

[pinkunicorn]

The anus is right next to the breathing hole, it's on the far left edge of the pneumostome. It sometimes looks like they poop out where they breath in!

It's really difficult to say how deep in could it be. If it's a parasite in the gut, it could be quite deep.

[jembolina]

If it's a parasite is it likely the snail is in a lot of pain? Would it be more humane to euthanise him by putting him in the fridge or something?

I feel so sorry for him It sounds horrible but I'm so gad it isn't my original snail with this problem... I'd be a wreck.

[pinkunicorn]

Is he eating normally? If he is, I'd keep him separated from the others for now (to make sure he doesn't infect others, just in case) and keep trying to catch the worm.

Another thing you could do is release him and let nature take care of it, if that's what must happen. If he's too weak to make it, then he will die. On the other hand if the parasite is not causing him pain or real harm then he'll hibernate and continue his life in the wild. But only release him if it's not yet below 10C degrees at nights where you live. Else he won't have time to adjust properly to the coming winter.

[jembolina]

No, he eats next to nothing. I wish the worm would come out again so i could get it with the tweezers. If I manage to get it I'll take pictures and post them on here. Maybe someone will recognise what it is.

No chance of it being too cold here, and I'm in the southern hemisphere so winter is over. I need to release the whole horde I brought in over the weekend that I found across the road from my house but I don't want to put the worm guy or the 2 sick guys (there are 2 with blister looking things on their bodies) with all of the healthy ones. I have about 37 snails right now (from 1 just a few days ago) and plan to just keep 2; my Snail and his new girlfriend. It's going to be so hard though to give up all of these new friends.

[jembolina]

The worm came out! it was lying on some lettuce near the snail with some poo. It's huge!! About 8 or 9cm long but looks like it could stretch itself longer and it's still alive. I'll post photos and a video of it squirming soon. It's so horrible.
It looks kind of like an earth worm but it was inside the snail for a week. Hopefully someone will be able to help identify it once I post pictures. Actually it looks the same as the picture I linked in the first post of a red wiggler worm.
Also, yesterday the snail did a strange poo that was like little white balls in a string. I wonder if this could have been the worm's eggs and if so, if there could be more eggs inside the snail. I wish I'd taken a photo of the poo to show you all.

[jembolina]

With snail's poo;


The underside of it;


Stretched out more, approximately 8 or 9cm long;

[inky]

That does look quite a lot like an earthworm. I hope your snail gets better!

[jembolina]

He seems better than he was when the worm was inside him. He's moved around a little and isn't right up inside the back of his shell like he was before.

I haven't seen a red earthworm like this before, only pink ones, but it definitely looks like the red wiggler worm I linked an image to in my first post.

It was in the snail for at least 8 days (I found the snail 8 days ago and the worm was in him up until today). Has anyone heard of that happening with an earthworm before? I don't know how it could have fit inside the little helix aspersa let alone lived inside for that long. Could the worm have been eating the snail's insides? Could it have laid eggs?

The poor snail, it must have been such a horrible experience for him.

[jembolina]

The snail still isn't moving around or eating much. His suction is worrying too. He fell off the ceiling of his home yesterday (though it wasn't far to fall and he had a soft landing) and just stayed there upside down - that's how I found him when I got home from work.

I don't know how to help him. Any tips?

[jembolina]

Another update; the snail is finally looking like he isn't about to die. He's eaten a bunch of lettuce, moved around and pooped a few times.

Today I was worried about the soil in my other snail's tank - I thought it would be okay as is as it was organic potting mix straight out of the bag but I bought some more today for my plants and noticed a warning for humans saying that it contains microorganisms, bacteria and fungi - so I took the soil out of the tank to bake it. There were 2 earthworms in the soil, one (the smaller one) I couldn't find and the larger one I took out. I was horrified to see that it was the same as the worm that almost killed the other snail, and I'm a bit worried about where the smaller worm went. I put the big worm in a potted plant as I don't want to risk it going into one of my snails.

I don't know if this was a freak occurrence, but just be aware that it is possible for an earthworm to go up into a snail's anus or breathing hole and stay there for over a week while the snail starves. It could have been much longer, when I found the snail it was already very deeply retracted and seemed very unwell and the worm came out 8 days after that.

[vallery]

Hi Jembolina ,

You might try PMing shaydeesnail she left a post on this thread for you about knowing this sort of thing has occurred before (third post down).
Hope this helps out a bit. I am definitely checking my tanks and any new soil from now on. I know it was a bad situation but very helpful to others I am glad you posted this. Thank You

vallery

[graemepryce]

Don't know where you are but in the UK we have deeply coloured earthworms like that. I stopped having them in my tank to turn the soil after this blog tale though! I'd hate that to happen to one of my big fellas. Hope he makes a full recovery!

[jembolina]

Claude (he now has a name) seems to have made a full recovery and has started having supervised play dates with the other snails. I don't want to leave him in a tank with others yet though just in case he is carrying worm eggs or something.

He now eats and moves around just as much as the other snails and seems healthy

[pinkunicorn]

I showed this to my biologist BF and his comment was "must have been pretty awful for both!". It's definitely an earthworm, there's thousands of different species of normally beneficial worms. It's doubtful the worm would have laid eggs inside the snail as it was a very weird experience for it as well, as far as worm experiences go.

Good to hear the snaily has gotten better. He probably didn't suffer any permanent damage as the worm could not have bitten him.

I think this was a freak incident, probably one in a million thing! ...which means it happens in nature occasionally, if my stats guesstimate is not too high probability.

[pinkunicorn]

Oh did you ever see if the worm was in the gut or in the mantle cavity? I keep looking at the worm and thinking there's no way it would have fit into the gut... but it could have just fit into the mantle cavity, wrapped into a ball. That's where the snail's eggs are kept as well, its organs take very little space in the end.

I got a very good pic of an aspersa of mine pooping which shows the difference. Normally it looks like the poop comes out of the same hole because the anus is really small and does not open like the pneumostome does.



(Before anyone asks why do I have photos of snail pooping... I was trying to demonstrate the anatomy )

[shaydeesnail]

That's a great picture! I went a good few years thinking they pooped and breathed through the same hole