Do snails bite?

[Brambles]

hi there, i was given a giant african land snail for christmas and its perfect and happy but im a bit hestitant about handling it, i was wondering if they would attempt to eat you if they thought you where a nice vegtetable and i dont know if their teeth could actually harm you, i tried handling it and it just looked like it was about to bite me which is really stupid but im just getting slightly paranoid. is there any way the snail would try to eat you?

[Deleted]

yes they do try and eat your skin when they are hungry, but it's not painful at all, its just a tiny tongue scraping against your skin.

[sezzy5889]

it feels like sand paper scraping on your hand because they don't actually have teeth they have whats called a radula which is more beak like, but don't worry they can't break the skin

[sophie]

if feels more like a massage

[deadmansfinger]

I find iredalei to be the worst.

[Nat]

I agree about iredalei. I remember mine (who are coming back to me today yippieee) rasping at me and I found them the sharpest of the lot. But it doesn't hurt, just shocks you if your not expecting it. Like sandpaper as someone else said. Unless they catch a tiny hair lol.
Nat

[maidmarion]

my big margie has a real razor, agony!

[Jess *Trumpton GALS*]

when i handled my snails for the first - not expecting any "teeth" - it suckered onto my finger!!! it doesnt hurt!!!! but if your not expecting it it does give u shock!!! so be prepared

[malacophile]

Digging up long-buried threads isn't usually my thing, but I have something to add.

Snails (and slugs) can definitely bite, as many of us have experienced. However, some are actually capable of doing considerable damage. Years ago, I'd caught some wild snails from a patch of woods near my home at the time. They looked like normal snails, brown in color and the largest of them the size of a nickel. but they certainly didn't act like any snails I'd encountered before. As soon as you handled them, they'd start rasping on your skin. Not a gentle, tickly rasp, but a sharp and painful one. They'd go at it until they drew blood, then they'd start doing it more vigorously. Despite my burning curiosity, I never let them continue much longer because it hurt way too much, especially with a lot of them on me.

I kept them in a large tank with a little water feature in which I kept a still-legless bullfrog tadpole. The water was about two inches deep. I went to check on them later the same day I placed them in there and found a group of them devouring the tadpole right beside the pool. These things were not only carnivorous to the extreme, but apparently also predatory. I also concluded that the only way they could have gotten to the tadpole was to somehow drag it from the water. How they did that is beyond me, though.

I'm working on getting back to that particular patch of woods to hopefully find some more and study them better.

[shaydeesnail]

Wow scary snails! It would be very interesting to find out what they were.

[jembolina]

There are carnivorous and omnivorous species of snails but Giant African Land Snails are herbivorous.
You don't need to worry about it biting you as such, although as others have mentioned it isn't uncommon for a snail to rasp a human's skin while handling it.
I have a helix aspersa (garden snail) who once actually chewed off some little spots of skin on my wrist but that's the only time I've ever experienced anything other than a little tickle from a snail. After that time he stopped rasping on me.

[Katie]

I used to keep a helix aspersa, who as a baby would rasp my hand. I always found that quite painful. Stopped hurting so much as it grew bigger though.

When my African Snails do it, it just tickles a little bit

[ilovegals7]

this is a bit unralated but is still on the topic of handiling.when ever i go near my snail or try to pick him up he gos into his shell? am i doing something wrong?

[tsrebel]

Probably not. Snails react that way. But I think they can get used to you. It also seems that some people have a more snail friendly smell to them or something. A friend of mine seems to smell really good to the snails, while they have to get used to me.
Remember to have wet and clean (no soap residue) hands whenever you touch them.

[ilovegals7]

thanks