Do snails bite?

[ihatejacknjills]

I have just caught some garden snails from my garden, and when I put them in my tank one of them immediately tried to escape (the lid was off). I put my finger infront of him to stop him escaping, and he pushed his head into my finger. I could reel a strange gentle scraping feeling on my finger - it felt very different to when they normally crawl over you. Do you think he was licking / biting me?

[siobhanc54]

They can kind of bite you, it feels more like a weird sucking as opposed to a proper bite, don't know if they could draw blood?
Maybe someone else has experienced a bite

[malti]

the small snails can't draw blood I guess, doesn't even hurt...dunno about the GALS though

[ihatejacknjills]

Yeah I wasn't meaning that I thought what they were doing could damage you - I just wanted to confirm whether or not this is what they were probably doing.

[Rachel]

its not actually biting, snails eat by rasping, which is scraping their tounge over the surface of something, it has little rough bumps, which is why it may sting a little. Unless they rasp at one spot for a while, or at a wound it should not cause harm. He probally thought it was worth seeing if you were food

[coyote]

What Rachel said.

Snails don't bite the way a dog would bite, as an aggressive or defensive behavior. Your snail was probably just rasping on you in an exploratory manner.

[muddydragon]

yes i agree with the above, the 'tongue' is called a radula, there's an immage of how it works here:
www.gireaud.net/us/escargot_anatomie_us.htm
(scecond image)
alot of snails will rasp at you, I've had giant pond snails do it and my near fully grown Gals - it tickles terribly but other than that isn't a problem. some continue for a while - to no harm to yourself, I do wonder if they are after the small amounts of salt in sweat (i know salt in certain concentrations is bad for them but they do encounter small amounts and is required for a variety of cell signalling procedures) - a bit like when horses lick your hands (obviously horses need more salt). But DONT feed them salt they will get the small amounts they need in their diet naturally! and from licking you

[crossless]

I think it's more of like they trying if your hand is edible or does it has any water to drink. Salt can kill snails, so think they ain't searching salt on hand.

[Hannah-Bird]

The rasping definitely feels weird, my snail tried it on me early on too. The only time it's been painful for me was when I had some leopard slugs in captivity (I live in Washington state so these were backyard finds as well) and they tried rasping on my finger. Leopard slugs are omnivorous, so the radula is designed to harm smaller slugs and therefore a little sturdier.

[coyote]

Aug 31, 2009 11:00:57 GMT muddydragon said:

I do wonder if they are after the small amounts of salt in sweat (i know salt in certain concentrations is bad for them but they do encounter small amounts and is required for a variety of cell signalling procedures)

Actually it's sodium that's needed for physiological functions. Salt is one of the ways organisms get sodium, but it can be obtained in other ways as well besides sodium chloride specifically.

[sarahs0snailies]

Snails rasping is their way of distinguishing what is food and what isnt so if he was a garden snail maybe he thought he had an easy meal lol

It feels so strange though like when a cat licks you that kind of weird.

[muddydragon]

i'm lazy and still call it salt (except when i did my exams in it of course!) - means you dont confuse people so much usually (didnt want to switch from salt to sodium midsentance!), but obviously not this time *slapped wrists*
anyway i believe the reason salt is dangerous to them is due to their semi permeable skins, the snail has a higher water potential than the salt and hence water is 'lost' through the skin untill they dessicate. so tiny tiny amounts would not bother them (as in sweat). so i would immagine with a drowning snail the correct amout of salt could save them (but i've only ever dared to just dry them out a little - not my snails garden snails that fell in the pond). though obviously not all snails have such trouble since they can regulate ion retention/loss etc obviously marine ones can (and freshwater though they have the reverse problem).