Large worms inside my garden snails?

[drawaphy]

In May of 2018, I noticed that one of my youngest C. Aspersum had some sort of worm in his left eye stalk. They had the appearance of a thread worm and were much larger than the type you would find in human faeces. After many hours of trying to find the identity of these parasites, I am still unable to 100% put a name to them. The closest thing that was mentioned in my research was the Rat lung worm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis). But what makes me think that it's not Rat lung worm is that fact that I cannot find any pictures on the internet of physically being able to see Angiostrongylus cantonensis in the snails body with the naked eye. You would think with all the warnings and cases of people dying and getting infected by Angiostrongylus cantonensis from eating snails, that you would find photos with descriptions like "this is what Angiostrongylus cantonensis looks like in a living snail, don't cook a snail if you see these inside it." But if it is Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the snail would have gotten it from the soil that I use in all of my vivariums which I harvest from outside.
Then on the 16th of July I noticed that the sibling of the infected snail also had worms in his left eye stalk.

At around the same time, I noticed that my Sinistral snail, which is house in a different vivarium than the first two, had visible worms in his body which appeared to cause some bloating issues. Other than the bloat, there are no other signs that the parasites cause the snails any harm. All have healthy appetites, are active and have no problem reproducing.

So other than Rat lung worm, are there any other parasites that these worms could be?

[pluto]

Hi there, I hope it’s okay for me to reply to this, I think my snail has/had the same problem and I was wondering if you or anyone else found any information about it. I currently have the snail, Arnold, in quarantine, but I’m not sure if it will really make a difference, considering how long the parasite must have been there before it got so big. The whole top of his head was swollen and the worm could be seen obviously moving in both eye stalks. Unfortunately it wasn’t until the next day I put him in quarantine (it was very late at night when I noticed it), and I found him mating with another snail in the morning -_- so I’m keeping an eye on the other snails, too...

Mostly I’m just wondering if I should even bother keeping Arnold in quarantine. He’s so lonely in there...

Thanks in advance. ♥

[snailfox]

Hello! I noticed your post while endlessly trying to figure this out… I’m having the literal same exact issue with one of my Helix Aspersa snails! Did you ever find out what these worms were? How they got there? Any treatments? There is so little information regarding this! Anyway would love to hear what happened with your snails

[GailTheSnail]

I am not 100% sure but I do not think those are worms. I’ve had several snails appear to have those same things but they usually clear up on their own and I’ve never seen a worm inside their enclosure (and they’re dirt free so I absolutely would see one if it somehow got in). Do you notice the shapes moving like a worm would move? For mine it seems more of a discoloration and I’ve never had any snails suffer negative health due to them either. But I am curious to see what your updates are.