Tiger snails are unknown snails, although they are widespread and can be found in almost every garden. This is due to their special way of life. They are incorrectly equated with the dreaded slugs. They prove to be real helpers in the garden.
breeding tiger snails
Tiger snails can be bred at home
Tiger snails are widespread in Central Europe. Hardly anyone knows this invertebrate animal because it is predominantly nocturnal and hides during the day. Anyone who takes a closer look at the lifestyle of these land snails will recognize the advantages of this species. Since they rarely cause damage to the garden and instead take on useful tasks, they are bred by garden lovers and nature lovers.
Preliminary considerations for husbandry
If you find tiger snails in your garden, you should not catch them for breeding. You take the snails out of a balanced ecosystem and run the risk of them not surviving in the terrarium due to unfavorable conditions. Purchased snails can be bred as long as you can offer the animals optimal conditions. There is a great risk that the climate will change and mold or yeast will develop. Putrefactive gases from rotten wood can also have a negative impact on the he alth of snails.
Buying tiger snails – makes sense?
You can buy tiger snails online, although this option is more suitable for those interested in breeding. The prices for an adult and sexually mature animal vary between 15 and 20 euros depending on the provider. If you order tiger snails, there are risks involved in shipping. Therefore, pay close attention to the delivery conditions so that the animals reach you alive.
You should pay attention to this:
- Shipping time no longer than two days
- Delivery only up to temperatures of 25 degrees
- no shipping over weekends or holidays
Tips for successful breeding
Tiger snails feel comfortable at room temperature and prefer high humidity, which should be around 90 percent. Occasional dry phases cause fewer problems for the animals than permanent dampness, as this increases the risk of mold formation. The accommodation will be furnished with moss and leaves from beech, oak or chestnut.
A large plastic box is sufficient for animals that are kept temporarily. If you want to breed the snails, you should keep them in a terrarium with a minimum height of 50 centimeters. Tiger snails have interesting mating behavior and need upward space. During mating they hang on a mucous thread that can be up to 43 cm long.
Suitable food:
- Mix of plants and protein-rich food
- fresh leaves and tree mushrooms
- Algae and moss from rotten wood
- Carrots and potatoes allow tiger snails to thrive
- Cucumbers, tomatoes or kohlrabi are welcome
Cleaning the terrarium should take place in the morning when the snails are in a deep sleep. You can put the bark and the snails aside. Be careful not to touch the snails. They have a layer of mucus that not only helps them move but also defends them against bacteria and germs. This protective layer is rubbed off by touch and the animals suffer unnecessary stress.
release tiger snails
Tiger snails should be released in a damp place
If you have bought tiger snails and put them out in the garden, you will not notice any major changes at first. Tiger snails retreat and do their work unnoticed. However, it takes more than one summer for a population to develop. A female can lay up to 200 eggs, a majority of which rot. The development of the hatched young depends on the weather conditions and conditions in your garden.
Important Notes:
- Tiger snails need moist hiding places such as stones or wood during the day
- Show patience and do not take control measures against slugs
- many young animals die from rain or predators
The ideal time to expose is autumn. Shortly before winter, the animals look for a place to overwinter. In spring they are among the first beneficial insects in the garden. As soon as they crawl out of their winter quarters, they start looking for food.
Attracting and settling tiger snails
Make sure the animals feel comfortable in your garden. Instead of ordering specimens over the Internet, you can use simple means to attract tiger snails to your garden and settle them permanently. The species is widespread in Central Europe and may already be in your garden or on your neighbor's property.
Do I have to introduce tiger snails?
If there are already slugs in your garden, the tiger slug is often not far away. Be patient, as the tiger snail usually shows its first signs of activity the following summer. A population develops automatically when food conditions are optimal. The snails are considered to be loyal to their location and will not leave your garden so quickly.
Tiger snails usually come naturally if your garden is designed in a natural way and offers ideal hiding places.
Attract with treats
Tiger snails love mushrooms
It has been shown that tiger snails are particularly fond of certain foods. These include carrots and potatoes, but oat flakes are also not disdained. The food should be made available within easy reach. If you already know where the snails are in your garden, you can give out some treats there. Otherwise, choose dark and damp hiding places and stock the area with food.
How to encourage tiger snails:
- distribute chopped mushrooms in the garden
- Provide shady and damp hiding places
- distribute rotten wood and hollow stones
Provide suitable living space
Tiger snails colonize compost heaps and woodpiles. They retreat into piles of branches and leaves or hide under roof tiles and cavities between patio stones. A natural stone wall offers the beneficial insect optimal opportunities to retreat. Shrubs and trees provide sufficient shade during the day. It is important that Limax maximus is allowed to spread undisturbed in its habitat.
Tips for garden design:
- Loosely stack perforated bricks and cover with brushwood and moldy leaves
- Place shards of clay pots centrally in the kitchen garden and enhance them with pieces of bark
- Planting shade-providing shrubs and perennials
In order to offer the beneficial insect an undisturbed habitat, you can make your garden snail-friendly. It is normal for slugs to feel comfortable in the garden after these measures, as they have similar requirements to tiger slugs. Their range of motion usually extends over two to three and sometimes up to ten meters. Therefore, place several hiding places in your garden that can be conquered by the snails over time.
Tiger snails live in the garden
The fact that large slugs do not have a good reputation is mainly due to the Spanish slug. It often occurs in large numbers and, as an introduced species, has few enemies. One of them is the tiger snail. Anyone who has this land snail in their garden should not fight it but rather protect it. Tiger snails are often found in cultivated landscapes close to settlements.
Tiger snails live here:
- original inhabitant of the forest floor that has developed into a cultural successor
- in structured fields with hedges and bushes
- in gardens and parks or industrial wastelands
- in cemeteries, compost heaps, vegetable patches and greenhouses
Useful or harmful?
Tiger snails have a wide range of food. In order to reach sexual maturity, invertebrates need protein-rich prey. A tiger snail cub cannot feed exclusively on plants because it cannot fully develop. Therefore, the snails hunt related species and their clutches.
Tiger snails help against snails in the garden. They prove to be effective hunters and can overwhelm specimens that are almost the same size. The snails are also important decomposers of dead organic substances. They keep nature pure and ensure that the compost becomes good soil.
Menu of a tiger snail:
- Main food: feces, fungi, rotting plant material, carrion
- Occasional food: young slugs and their clutches
- Exceptional food: fresh shoots and leaves
Greenhouse
In the greenhouse the animals can nibble on the vegetables
It may happen that you come across tiger snails in the greenhouse. The humidity is often high here and there are many shady hiding places. If you plant tomatoes or cucumbers there, the beneficial insects will happily feast on the harvest. Although they don't cause much damage, they shouldn't necessarily live in the greenhouse. Instead, put the animals on the compost heap or in a pile of wood. Handle the snails with a large leaf so that you don't get the thick slime on your skin.
Are tiger snails poisonous?
Tiger snails, like all slugs, secrete a foul-tasting mucus. This serves as a protective layer that keeps the body moist. The mucus also has an antibacterial effect and prevents potential predators from attacking the snail. The secretions have a bitter taste and are extremely tough, so that predators' mouthparts or beaks can easily stick together. However, Limax maximus is not poisonous to humans.
Excursus
Secrets about snail slime
Snail slime is a miracle of nature. Its consistency varies between solid and liquid depending on the pressure applied. If the snail rests, the mucus becomes viscous or hardens. Only through the movements and the resulting pressure on the mucus does it liquefy again. It adheres well to a surface and is extremely elastic.
However, its production requires an extremely large number of resources, which is why slugs rely on moist biotopes. Because they take so long to produce mucus, they move slowly. Existing traces of slime are often used for locomotion, as this saves the snail a lot of energy.
Tiger snail vs. slug
Tiger slugs and slugs can be distinguished by their breathing hole
You sometimes don't recognize tiger snails by their typical markings, as these can vary greatly. Occasionally, monochromatic light or dark specimens occur. Like slugs, tiger snails have a mantle shield that takes up a third of the body length. This protects the vital organs. The animals have a cream-colored sole.
An important distinguishing feature is the location of the breathing hole, which is on the right side of both snails. In tiger snails, the dark-rimmed breathing opening is located slightly behind the middle of the mantle shield, while the Spanish slug has its breathing hole in the front half.
Identifying characteristics of the tiger snail:
- 21 to 26 furrows between midline and edge of mantle shield
- relatively short keel, which only takes up the last third of the back
- colorless and viscous slime
Where do tiger snails overwinter?
Adult snails can live for two to three years, so they have to overwinter several times. They retreat into protected niches where they are not endangered by frost. When the outside temperature drops, the metabolism slows down. Heartbeat and breathing slow down so that the snail uses as little energy as possible until spring. The eggs can also overwinter.
Tip
Tiger snails like to retreat to damp basements to overwinter. If you find the patterned snail there, you should release it in the garden in spring. Often the beneficial insects cannot find their way out again.
Profile
Tiger snails are known by the Latin name Limax maximus. They are also colloquially called large snails, tiger snails or large leech snails. The invertebrates reach a length of between ten and 20 centimeters. They now occur in temperate latitudes worldwide.
Courtship
The hermaphrodite animals mate during the summer months and do not require a partner of the opposite sex to reproduce. Copulation begins with a chase. Once the pursued person has found a suitable place for reproduction, he stops and forms a harmonious circle with the pursuer.
This is usually formed on a vertical surface. The animals move in circles and secrete a lot of mucus, creating a circular spot on the surface. Shortly before the actual act, the snails shorten, so that the front of the body is very swollen.
Reproduction
Their mating is like an acrobatic act and lasts about an hour. After foreplay, the partners wrap themselves around each other in a spiral and secrete a reddish-yellow thread of mucus. With violent movements, both partners detach themselves from the ground so that they hang upside down on the slime thread. This twists and stretches greatly to a length of 20 to 45 centimeters.
The actual copulation:
- tubular and bluish-white genitals expand up to four centimeters
- Sperm packets travel through the tubes to the tip
- Penis tips form a bluish ball and are reminiscent of a “lamp bell”
- Semen packets come out and are attached to the other sexual organ
The snails stay in this position for a while without moving any further. The animals then separate from each other. Often one partner falls to the ground while the second snail crawls up the slime thread and eats it.
Egg laying
Tiger snails lay eggs for the first time between July and August. A second egg laying will follow next year between June and July. Two to four clutches are produced in one laying period, each of which can contain 100 to 300 eggs. The number depends on the size and vitality of the animal.
Identify eggs:
- spherical to elongated
- completely transparent and crystal clear
- four to five millimeters in diameter
Development
Depending on the temperature, it takes between 19 and 25 days for the first young animals to hatch. In unfavorable conditions, development can extend to 45 days. Eggs laid shortly before winter survive until spring. But not all eggs can develop.
A large proportion falls victim to parasitic infestation by mites, nematodes or flies, while other eggs rot in conditions that are too humid. The young tiger snails are pale white and only get their first stripes after about a week. It takes about a year and a half for young tiger snails to reach sexual maturity.
Tip
Tiger snails eat conspecifics when they need protein and other food resources are scarce. When keeping in a terrarium, make sure you eat a balanced diet.
Enemies and threats
On the one hand, humans provide the tiger snail with a habitat and, on the other hand, ensure that such important niches are lost. The molluscs usually do not find optimal living conditions in tidy gardens. As soon as you take action against slugs and spread slug pellets, you will also destroy the hidden tiger slugs.
Sandy and dusty surfaces also kill the animals because they depend on moist environments. The natural enemies primarily include birds such as ducks and chickens, but also songbirds and crows. Hedgehogs only eat the slimy snails when they can't find any other food.
Snow species at a glance
The black tiger snail is, as the name suggests, quite dark
In the snail family there are numerous species that can be confused with the tiger snail due to their striking coloring. Identifying features are not only the different sizes but also the typical distribution of the respective species. Most snails are not cultural followers.
| scientific | Occurrences | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger Snail | Limax maximus | widespread in Central Europe | ten to 20 centimeters |
| Black Snail | Limax cinereoniger | rare in cultivated land, forest dwellers | larger than 20 centimeters |
| Spotted Snail | Limacus maculatus | British Islands | up to ten centimeters |
| Beer Schnegel | Limacus flavus | rare in Central Europe | up to nine centimeters |
At the beginning of the 20th century, researchers were not yet aware that many black snails did not belong to the tiger snail species. This assumption is based on the fact that the snails have very variable color patterns or appear completely monochrome. Studies showed that some specimens did not mate with each other. The results led to a species split.
Tiger Snail
The species is characterized by a light ground color on which a variable and dark stripe or spot pattern is formed. Specimens with intense markings can appear very dark. In all individuals the sole of the foot is monotonous and cream-colored. When expanded, the genital tube reaches about half the length of the body. They always mate hanging on a thread of mucus that is produced at an elevated position.
Black Snails
This related species has a dark basic color, although individuals of different colors can also occur. The sole of the foot is typical, appearing dark at the edge and light colored in the middle. The species is not a cultural follower, but colonizes natural forests. The mating process is similar to that of tiger snails. They hang from a tree trunk by the tip of their tail, with their genitals extending to the length of their body.
Color varieties:
- grey-brown or black-gray to black
- often with weak and dark longitudinal bands on the sides
- partly black or light spotted to striped
- light monochrome, red or tabby specimens are possible
Frequently asked questions
Where can you buy tiger snails?
Many nature lovers breed the beneficial insects and offer excess tiger snails from their own keeping on eBay classifieds. The offer varies depending on the season. During the breeding season between June and August you will be able to order more eggs, while newly hatched or growing young animals will be available from spring onwards. You can also buy the animals online in special shops such as the Schnegelfarm.
Why do I have numerous slugs in my garden despite my tiger snails?
It takes several years for an independent population of tiger snails to develop. Large masses of slugs cannot be combated sustainably by using tiger snails alone. Even if you establish several populations of the beneficial insects in the garden, you will always find slugs. It is therefore not advisable to introduce large numbers of tiger snails. Rather, you should ensure an ecological balance and promote the slug's natural enemies.
These are enemies of the slug:
- Black rot beetle
- starved hedgehogs
- Toads
Are tiger snails endangered?
The species was originally native to southern and western Europe and was able to settle throughout Central Europe due to human abduction. It is now widespread, but populations are declining again in some areas. The species is considered potentially endangered in Schleswig-Holstein and Upper Austria.
What do tiger snails eat?
The species is an omnivore and feeds on both living invertebrates and remains or dead parts of plants. The menu includes mushrooms, fresh leaves as well as carrion and organic waste in the compost. A tiger snail eats other snails to meet its protein needs. The animals need the protein to reach sexual maturity. They can overwhelm conspecifics or slugs that are almost as big as themselves. Clutches are also not disdained.
How do I recognize snails?
A typical identifying feature for snails is the dorsal keel, which runs as a more or less clear edge from the tip of the tail to the middle of the back. Like slugs, snails have also greatly reduced their shells. In snails there is a flat housing plate under their mantle shield, which is not visible from the outside. Snails and snails have a breathing hole, which is located on the right side of the mantle shield. In snails, unlike slugs, this opening is in the back half of the shield.