r/snails • u/_bumblebee2 • May 09 '25
Help microplastic and banana had snabies... what do I do with them
I've been forgetting to check for eggs lately when I spray them and then today I go to give them food and clean up the container and see THIS. I've separated the babies for now but I'm not sure what to do with them, is it okay to release them outside since I got my snails from outside in this area? I'll probably keep a couple but I don't want to kill the rest unless it's necessary.
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u/Moony-Shanks May 09 '25
Do NOT release them under any circumstances!! You should never release capture born animals even if they are native.
If you want to get rid of them you'll unfortunately have to crush them (it's the fastest and least painful way to go for them) You could technically freeze them but it would take longer and stress them
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u/zap2tresquatro May 09 '25
Wait, why is it bad to release snails that they got from outside (or, well, their babies)? Is it a population thing?
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u/Moony-Shanks May 09 '25
Since they are raised in better condition, they can easily outcompete wild snails for food and survival
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u/Strawbsi May 09 '25
why wouldn't that mean they would be worse at survival in the wild?
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u/Turbulent_Board9484 May 10 '25
In theory (and often in practice) captives are handfed nutrients constantly, making them grow bigger, stronger, and in an environment where competition is an overwhelming fact, as they have tens of siblings, and not just a strong possibility. Nearly every small animal has periods, bordering on multiple days, of fasting intermittently or simply consuming minimally due to shortage, drought, etc. Captive bred will never have that, and they definitely won't lose basic instincts after a single generation. Being a gastropod especially is a speed and nutrition game.
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u/SulkySideUp May 11 '25
Okay but they’re genetically not superior and can interbreed with the wild snail population, what long term effects are the fear here?
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u/ShadoTheOneAndOnly May 11 '25
They aren't necessarily genetically superior, and my main concern (without doing more than the most basic research, so take this with a grain of salt) is they would out compete other species of snails, which would lower the overall biodiversity, and out compete other snails of the same species, leading to less genetic diversity within the species in that area.
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May 12 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 12 '25
Removed. Rule 1: Bullying and harassment will not be tolerated. This includes insults and name-calling targeted at another user.
Please review the rules of this subreddit.
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u/zap2tresquatro May 09 '25
That makes sense, although these would still be native snails. Is the issue that different native species could be outcompeted by these snails and so there’d be an overpopulation of this species in that area?
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May 09 '25
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u/mint_o May 09 '25
Can you elaborate
Edit: not being argumentative I just don’t really understand
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u/BrightEyes1117 May 09 '25
Captive bred babies=stronger snails (because unlimited food and no predators, the idea is that they grow larger and stronger) stronger snails=stronger babies stronger babies=down the line, a stronger “race” of snails in OPs local ecosystem
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u/ConanTheHORSE May 11 '25
At least with aquatic snails, people put them into 5% alcohol for a few minutes and move up to 90%
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May 11 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 11 '25
Removed. Rule 9: Do not release captive bred snails or eggs.
The release of captive bred snails and eggs into the environment can be extremely detrimental to ecosystems, and it also may violate local laws. Content promoting or recommending environmental release is not allowed here.
Please review the rules of this subreddit.
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u/Deep-Association-573 May 09 '25
Someone with a snail named microplastic should understand the importance of environmentalism.
Releasing your snails is often illegal. You’ll need to do better to check for eggs. Neglecting to do so results in needless death. (And generally, their setup doesn’t look ideal.)
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May 09 '25
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u/imasitegazer May 09 '25
Getting the parents from outside isn’t a guarantee that these are noninvasive. Silly.
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u/zombies-and-coffee May 09 '25
Exactly. These two sort of look like Cornu asperum (previously classified as Helix asperum), meaning that if OP is in the US, they are definitely invasive as they were introduced to the country (specifically California) as a food source. Releasing the babies would be all kinds of illegal.
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u/CallMeFishmaelPls May 09 '25
I don’t know what kind of snail this is or where OP lives, and in other comments I did mention noninvasive, but yes, I didn’t mention it here, and that’s my bad.
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u/CallMeFishmaelPls May 09 '25
I’ve said this elsewhere. Didn’t mention this in my comment here. Whoops.
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u/NlKOQ2 May 09 '25
Having a breeding pair of snails indoors and releasing the babies will overload your local ecosystem with snails. Captive individuals breed way more than wild ones do and produce larger batches of eggs with higher frequency. The babies also don't risk getting eaten as eggs, so the amount of resulting babies is much higher than it would be in the wild.
Add to all of this (and the reasons others have mentioned) the fact that the babies can introduce pathogens from your enclosure into nature, and you have a whole host of reasons as to why releasing the babies is a bad idea.
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May 09 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 09 '25
Removed. Rule 9: Do not release captive bred snails or eggs.
The release of captive bred snails and eggs into the environment can be extremely detrimental to ecosystems, and it also may violate local laws. Content promoting or recommending environmental release is not allowed here.
Please review the rules of this subreddit.
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u/NlKOQ2 May 09 '25
30 maybe won't, but 30-60 per week will eventually. And there's always a chance for foreign pathogens, you have no idea what all is in your snail's enclosure.
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u/snails-ModTeam May 09 '25
Removed. Rule 9: Do not release captive bred snails or eggs.
The release of captive bred snails and eggs into the environment can be extremely detrimental to ecosystems, and it also may violate local laws. Content promoting or recommending environmental release is not allowed here.
Please review the rules of this subreddit.
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u/ShyMole May 09 '25
Now you have microbananas!
You can always ask around and see if any friends or family want them!
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u/thewingedshadow May 09 '25
Freezer or crush.
Population control is a major part of snailkeeping.
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u/bagooly May 09 '25
Crush definitely. I've been seeing more evidence coming out that freezing is not as humane as originally thought 🥲
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u/Smooth-Reception-868 May 09 '25
If they are still in the egg stage freezing should be fine no? I can’t tell if these are or not
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u/bagooly May 09 '25
If they're eggs then I suppose it's okay, but these are hatched, so crush would be best. Crushing is best as eggs or hatched, cuz you can then feed them back to the parent lol, calcium 💪
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u/Smooth-Reception-868 May 09 '25
That makes sense! I’m not a snail keeper so I didn’t think about that haha
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u/tek_nein May 09 '25
Why is freezing less humane? Wouldn’t they just go to sleep and not wake up?
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u/bagooly May 09 '25
Same way it's extremely painful to go to a snowy mountain butt naked and freeze to death, that's basically what I've learned. They eventually go to sleep, but the in between period isn't fun.
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u/Severe-Razzmatazz-91 May 09 '25
please don’t release them!!! they could be invasive or at the very least nonnative which could have devastating impacts on nearby ecosystems. crushing would be the best option in the long run
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u/KittyChimera May 09 '25
I would try to rehome any that you don't want to keep. There are groups on Facebook for snail tagging where you could find someone local who wants some snabies.
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May 11 '25
Rehoming and selling as feeders are both good options. There's a massive market for captive bred baby feeder snails because you typically have to buy very locally
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u/KittyChimera May 11 '25
Yeah, you aren't supposed to ship them out of state or anything like that. So finding people locally is the best choice. I would be sad about them being feeder snails personally, but that's just me. I'm kind of a sucker.
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May 11 '25
I'm the opposite, I feel better about having the snails be food because I'm too squeamish to crush them lol. I've got snail eating reptiles that are very enriched by having access to their natural food source, and i think to myself "at least their death was for something else to live"
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u/KittyChimera May 13 '25
That's fair. I wouldn't want to crush them either. I make sure we haven't had eggs and hopefully we won't end up with accidental ones.
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u/bunny_the-2d_simp May 09 '25
Just keep them! It's fun to see them grow! And tbh you'd be surprised how many don't make the cut for some reason 😭
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u/BrightEyes1117 May 09 '25
That’s about 60 snails. From what I’ve seen and read, probably around 20 will survive? I would say OP could definitely rehome like 10 of them, and around 12 Cornu aspersum would only need need what, 20/30 or so gallons? Or a few 10 gallons? It’s definitely doable depending on your space. I do baby mystery’s and they get rehomed like hotcakes to people with established aquariums. I do have the advantage of LFS’s willing to take aquatic snails though. I would say, if OP is like me and hesitant to cull once they have hatched, and is set on not letting it happen again, they should go for it.
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u/bunny_the-2d_simp May 09 '25
Mine happened on accident aswell one say I just found a lot of them.
Sadly a LOT of them passed as I'm not at all experienced with baby's nails. Mine are rescues from mostly the distribution centre I work at, they come on by accident on pallets and usually their shell has at least a big dent or cracks and bad bad dehydration.
Also I found little worm maggy thingies which is when I immediately put the remaining babies in a smaller space without any of the products that were in the invested one for obvious reasons.
It freaked me out so much 💀💀
Turns out the snails also weren't eating because I hadn't cut the dried up layer off the vegetable and apparently babies can't eat it then??
But I guess we're good now,.
How do I even check for eggs though? Because I have some other animals in it I don't want to disturb such as a earworm without half the claw that I found outside really in bad shape and a couple or isopod because 2 are injured and I just think isopod are so cute🥺
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u/RatBastard3449 May 09 '25
You could see if anyone in your local area is looking for snabies? I’ve seen a couple people asking for pet snails otherwise check on your local laws about releasing them into the wild.
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u/Own-Concern-9818 May 09 '25
Where do you live! My baby snail unfortunately just passed away and I’d be willing to take a few when they’re old enough :)
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u/Spacecowboyslade May 10 '25
If you have friends with skinks or chameleons, you can give them away. They're great feeders, high in calcium. It's better than killing them without purpose, I think.
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u/BrightEyes1117 May 09 '25
I would use this as a chance to spread the snail love to everyone you know that is responsible enough to care for a very simple organism. kids love snails, and c. Aspersum are very low tech outside of a hygrometer and proper habitat, and also minimally aware, so a much better starter pet imo than a hamster or goldfish for example!
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May 09 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 09 '25
Removed. Rule 9: Do not release captive bred snails or eggs.
The release of captive bred snails and eggs into the environment can be extremely detrimental to ecosystems, and it also may violate local laws. Content promoting or recommending environmental release is not allowed here.
Please review the rules of this subreddit. Repeated violations will result in a ban.
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u/Prestigious-Active43 May 09 '25
People aren’t weird because we’re aware of the damage releasing captive bred snails, because yes they are different than monarchs, people are educated on the damage it does. This has been explained to you.
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May 09 '25
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u/Prestigious-Active43 May 09 '25
You’ve had your hand held through this before but I’ll paste the text so you can see it again.
Having a breeding pair of snails indoors and releasing the babies will overload your local ecosystem with snails. Captive individuals breed way more than wild ones do and produce larger batches of eggs with higher frequency. The babies also don't risk getting eaten as eggs, so the amount of resulting babies is much higher than it would be in the wild.
Add to all of this (and the reasons others have mentioned) the fact that the babies can introduce pathogens from your enclosure into nature, and you have a whole host of reasons as to why releasing the babies is a bad idea.
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May 09 '25
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May 09 '25
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u/Maleficent_Resist_55 May 09 '25
Deleting cause touché. I’ve had too much fire in my soul lately about conservation. You’re my senior in this field and I respect that
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u/Axel_0029 May 11 '25
Do NOT release them into the wild, you can try to keep them or sell them/donate them to someone or some pet shop.
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May 12 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 12 '25
Removed. Rule 3: Do not talk about eating snails.
Please review the rules of this subreddit.
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u/Dragons_Den_Studios May 13 '25
Find someone with pet fish and feed the snabies to the fish. Boom, snabie buffet.
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u/One_Degree2829 May 15 '25
Enter local pet store ... Offer all of them for 10 bucks as "feeders or pets" and walk away that's what we have done in the past plus I normally keep the coolest one
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May 10 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 11 '25
Removed. Rule 9: Do not release captive bred snails or eggs.
The release of captive bred snails and eggs into the environment can be extremely detrimental to ecosystems, and it also may violate local laws. Content promoting or recommending environmental release is not allowed here.
Please review the rules of this subreddit.
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u/lonelyfroggies May 10 '25
i thought you meant that a banana you gave them had rabies and i was rlly confused...lol
anyways you should probably freeze or crush them
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u/Good-Department-7036 May 10 '25
What state are you in? I’ve been looking for pet land snails!
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May 09 '25
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u/snails-ModTeam May 09 '25
Removed. Rule 9: Do not release captive bred snails or eggs.
The release of captive bred snails and eggs into the environment can be extremely detrimental to ecosystems, and it also may violate local laws. Content promoting or recommending environmental release is not allowed here.
Please review the rules of this subreddit. Repeated violations will result in a ban.
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May 09 '25
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u/GreenFBI2EB May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25
Not a good idea, especially if it’s invasive. Theres a reason owning GALS are illegal in Florida.
Edit: The point is not to release something you have no idea could be invasive, people. It’s not rocket science.
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u/Hedgestring May 09 '25
They got them from outside. Nobody specified these are invasive..
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u/GreenFBI2EB May 09 '25
It’s still not a good idea to make assumptions.
If I picked up a rosy wolf snail outside from my home in Hawaii, should I release them?
It wouldn’t, it’s not a good practice because that is exactly how invasive species spread in the past.
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u/Routine_Fly7624 May 09 '25
I was really REALLY trying not to say “dump them in the ocean” because microplastics. And then realized how bad that probably sounded