Humidity and temperature for garden snails?

[blackscorpion]

Hi there,

I have 1 snail since June, 2 others since August or something and 2 more since a month or so. I got a real glass terrarium from my parents for my birthday (yaaaay). Now I did not think about this before, as they are just normal garden snails (Helis aspersa, Cepaea nemoralis and Clausilia), but now I have a real terrarium, I want to do everything a bit "better" now. I spray / mist the whole terrarium twice a day, but I have the feeling the enclosure is a bit dry. Therefore I orderex the Exo Terra combometer to know exactly the temperature and humidity in my terrarium.

But now... 

What is the average temperature to keep my garden snails in (autumn / winter / spring / summer)?
What is the average humidity to keep my snailies in?

Thanks,
Blacky

[Liguus]

Most standard garden snails won't care about the temp or humidity. In the wild they are active with the rains and then seal to a tree or wall with a mucus membrane during other days. I you spray them once a day and they are active for a few hours it will be enough. I always recommend getting a 1 gallon pump sprayer (hardware store type, used traditionally for pesticide application) because then you can really soak them down as if it wear a heavy rain instead of misting. You can always tighten the spray as well for a heavy mist as well.

I still am uncertain if snails from northern regions require a hibernation period or not, but for the past couple of years I have been keeping them inside year round in a room that is at least 80-85*F in the winter (It gets this hot because my snail/plant room is the smallest in the house, all the grow lights for the plants heat it up, and additionally this is an old split-level house so this middle-floor room gets both the radiator heat from the old bottom of the house, as well as hot air from the vents leading to the upstairs central heating unit.)

[blackscorpion]

Yeah, I guess that is the handy thing about having garden snails, they are quickly satisfied. But still, I want to do right for them, so I am curious. I have a regular spray as used for window cleaning and such, but a really small one. I can't turn it to other settings, it is just a regular spray. I am looking around for others, but I think this does the job well enough and I have just had the investment of the combometer, so will wait for now before I go buy a better sprayer.

I spray them twice a day, before I go to work and in the evening. Now with their new terrarium I do need to spray more than in their little plastic thingy, I notice it gets dry much more quickly. Last evening I sprayed almost my full spray-thingy into the terrarium to get it really wet. Of course, they don't like it much and crawl off instead of keep doing what they were doing.

Anyhow, as for the hibernation. I know of 2 other people who have garden snails where the snails had a hibernation last winter, even though they were indoors. I do think they have lower temperatures in house - or at least where their terrariums are - than I do though. So I don't know whether mine will hibernate. I think I have read somewhere it is better for them to hibernate, it would make them live longer. But not sure if this is true. Anyhow, this is my first winter with snails, so I will see. I just don't think they will hibernate, being in the living room where it is always between 20 en 23 degrees celsius.

Back to temperature and humidity. I think I'll just keep them where they are now and see what this winter will say. As for humidity, I read it has to be between 75 and 90%. I'll know how much as soon as I have my combometer, but I fear I won't reach that...

[morningcoffee]

The Exo Terra tanks are great, but due to the mesh lid there's a lot of airflow which means they can dry out pretty quickly. When I was using these tanks, I covered the lid with a transparent trash bag which helped keep the tank moist for longer.

EDIT : Sorry, just realised I misread and you didn't actually say your terrarium was an Exo Terra one. If the lid on yours is mesh or has a lot of air holes, though, you might still want to consider covering it.

[blackscorpion]

It is actually indeed an Exo Terra with mesh roof. I indeed get the idea it dries out quickly. Not that the snailies aren't active though! They crawl around quite a lot! But once I have my meter, I can check the humidity at different times and the lowest one and such. If it is too terrib!e, I might cover half of the mesh and see what that says.

[Liguus]

I have mostly 10 or 20 gallon aquariums with mesh tops and for most snails from cold climates aka "average garden snails"it seems to be enough to just spray them once a day. My pet room has a higher than normal humidity though since I have a mangrove swamp and sundew swamp in it, maybe around 70% humidity at least. I would not be surprised to find mold in the walls eventually. It is bad combo since the trash bin is also in that room and the food stays in the terrarium for at least 3 days before it's swapped out. I recently installed a fan and keep the door open to help "freshen" things a bit from the miasma.

But if you still want to have them humid for long periods of time I recommend this set up www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj0I2IVNs6M&t=28s. i used plexiglass but honestly in your case you could just plastic wrap the mesh and make a hole for the tube line. This helps increased the humidity but also pumps in fresh oxygen which was one of my main worries with sealing snails up in terrariums.