Making it easier to find eggs?

[axialgentleman]

I have a terrarium with 3 garden snails (Davesprite, Snaily Snail and Little Octavio) and 3 milk snails (Symon, Umbro, and Moby). For the first 6 months I owned them they never laid any eggs, but for the past few months they've been burying themselves frequently. I missed a couple of clutches of eggs when I was cleaning and now I have about 2 dozen baby snails -- the first litter was adorable, but the new ones are more than I can take care of and I am not looking forward to culling them post-hatching 😢

Even when I see where the snails are burying themselves, I usually can't find eggs. When I do find them they're scattered throughout the dirt and I have to turn the soil over and over and over to find them all. It takes up a lot of time!

Is there a way I can find eggs more easily, or set up the environment so the snails lay them in more predictable places? The substrate is 3-4 inches deep; it's potting soil with a layer of coir in some places.

Could I try removing soil from part of the terrarium so there are fewer places to bury themselves? They're almost always on the walls or lid except when they're burying themselves, so I don't think it would cause them distress.

Bonus question: Do we know whether garden snails can breed with milk snails? Some of the eggs were laid by Moby, but I see Moby interacting with the garden snails far more than the other milk snails.

bonus baby photo for people who read the post, from when the first babies were just newborns. That's a brussels sprout leaf! It amazes me how they're 1/500th the size of an adult snail but they still have a perfect little spiral in their tiny shell.

[snaileyhammy]

Hello there!

So, to answer your first question, when searching for eggs, to make things easier, I would suggest putting lots of moss and wood in the tank. So, that if they do happen to lay eggs, they will likely lay them in these places (under the moss or wood). When you check for eggs, first check all sides oof the tank. If any eggs were laid near the walls of the terrarium, you will be able to see them just by observing the outside of the glass or plastic tank. If you do these two things an do not notice any eggs, move the substrate around very carefully (you can try doing third with a paint brush if you'd like). If you toss it around a lot, you will likely disturb a clutch, and scatter the eggs around, making it more difficult for you to find the eggs. If you hadn't tossed the substrate around before, and you just found the eggs scattered throughout the tank, it is likely these were tester eggs. Tester eggs, are, often, infertile eggs that snails lay to test if conditions are correct in their enviroment. There isn't much you can do to prevent tester eggs though, besides keep conditions in their tank correct and just removing them when you see them.

Also, when snails bury themselves, it isn't always to lay eggs, it is also a natural behavior of theirs. When you see them burried, just leave them be until they come back out, and then you can search for eggs if you'd like. You shouldn't need to remove any soil, but It MIGHT help decrease the time you have to spend looking for eggs. x

I have never had of a milk snail breeding with a Cornu, so I would say that it is safe to say, that they were not breeding with yours. I am not totally sure if it is even possible, but you never know. I will see if I can find any information about that for you.

Anyways, I think that covers about everything! Those babies snails are super cute btw!! If you have too many baby snails, and you are not sure what to do with them, and do not want to cull, you can try and re-home them! I am sure there is someone nearby who might be able to take them. I actually own a snail rescue, and I can help you if you ever need it! I hope this helped though! Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns!

[axialgentleman]

Thanks for the kind advice! I just tried using some sphagnum moss in the nursery terrarium and the baby snails seem to be fine with it -- it's almost like a jungle gym for them. I will try putting some in the adult terrarium and reducing the area that has dirt for them to bury in. I definitely need to keep the entire floor of the tank padded in some way, though. The milk snails are constantly crawling up on the walls, sticking themselves there, and then falling off!

[snaileyhammy]

Of course!

I am so glad the moss worked out! Let me know how everything goes from here!

[cloudprism]

Hi, I have a glass aquarium that I fill with soil. To check for eggs, I just lift their house and look under.. they usually lay them right at the glass so I can see the cluster of eggs pretty easily.

Also, yes milk snails can mix with garden snails… I had this happen. But what ends up happening is most of the babies will look more like garden snails and maybe like 3 or 4 will look like a milk snail. Thats what happened to mine anyway!