Worms Coming out of Snails

[zenjah]

Hi there, when we were cleaning our pet snails recently, we noticed tiny maggot-like things crawling out of one of our pet snails (very tiny ones and barely visible) - he has been sealing himself in his shell for some time prior to this. Does anyone know what these might be? Can these 'worms' kill snails and is there anything we could do to help the snails fight it?

thanks so much

[snaileyhammy]

Hi there!

How are things going now? If your snail does have worms the best way to get rid of them would be to clean the entire tank out like you would for mites, and feed your snail some bell peppers, or other peppers, and pumpkin seeds. Both of these foods have been known to help deworm snails. There is also a snail mix that is sold on Etsy, that has those two foods in it, and some other things, that you can buy to deworm your snail. Let me know what you think, and I can give you some more information, and link some websites that might be able to help you.

[zenjah]

Thanks very much snaileyhammy for your suggestions. We've cleaned the tank and completely replaced the contents within the tank to new things. Our snail did come out of his shell, and ate a little bit then went back to sealing himself up again. When he seals himself, his foot doesn't seem to cover the whole area anymore like he used to which makes us a bit worried because we've had him for about 3 years now and he is showing signs that are similar to what our previous snails were showing before they died - darkened colours, seems to have smaller mass and not moving as much etc. We are hoping that this is not caused by the worms

[pasi9]

It might also be worth trying Hypoasis Mites? I know they're typically used in the case of snail mites, but it's likely they might be able to hunt down whatever these worms are too.

[snaileyhammy]

Apr 4, 2022 22:31:40 GMT zenjah said:

Thanks very much snaileyhammy for your suggestions. We've cleaned the tank and completely replaced the contents within the tank to new things. Our snail did come out of his shell, and ate a little bit then went back to sealing himself up again. When he seals himself, his foot doesn't seem to cover the whole area anymore like he used to which makes us a bit worried because we've had him for about 3 years now and he is showing signs that are similar to what our previous snails were showing before they died - darkened colours, seems to have smaller mass and not moving as much etc. We are hoping that this is not caused by the worms

Of course! And yes, they are likely doing this because of the worms. Let me know how things go ok

[zenjah]

Thank you both for your help.
Unfortunately our pet snail passed away recently - we felt very saddened and guilty that the worms might have caused his death and we haven't done anything more to prevent it...
We buried him in our garden and hopefully he is at peace now