The exhibit at UC Riverside’s Tomás Rivera Library explores how cyberpunk has evolved from a 1980s science fiction subgenre into a lens for examining modern technology and identity.
Whether you find them in your backyard, munching on your tomato plants, or on a grocery shelf, safely held within a tin can, brown garden snails clearly lead a double life. Love them or hate them, it’s no surprise that Riverside’s most common snail is also the world’s most common snail.
The brown garden snail, Cornu aspersum (meaning “the spotted horn”), was intentionally introduced to California in the late 1880s—not to infest gardens, but to be farmed for food. Native to Mediterranean countries, the brown garden snail is featured in the cuisines of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, and even tiny Andorra. A quick internet search yields dozens of snail recipes. In the United States, they’re typically served as “escargots” (simply French for “snails”). Cooked thoroughly and often served in their shells with garlic butter, escargots are considered a gourmet treat—often accompanied by a special utensil to extract the snail from its shell.
California isn’t the only place where snails were imported for farming. Today, Cornu aspersum is found on every continent except Antarctica. But rest assured, the snails on your plate are the same species mowing down your basil—sometimes with help from their relatives, the slugs.
Slugs and snails belong to a branch of the large animal group Mollusca. Mollusks have soft bodies and often a shell made of calcium carbonate. Snails and slugs, both terrestrial and aquatic, are classified as gastropods (“stomach foot,” referencing the location of their mouth on their single foot). This includes sea snails, whelks, and conches. Slugs have lost most of their shells over time, though many still have a vestigial internal shell. Other well-known mollusks include bivalves (like mussels, oysters, clams, and scallops) and cephalopods (“head foot”), such as squids, octopuses, and nautiluses.
In brown garden snails, the tentacles are sensory organs. The two upper tentacles are light-sensitive; the lower pair respond to touch and smell. Movement is achieved by its large foot, at a literal snail’s pace. The mouth is located on the foot as well.
Cornu aspersum plays a significant role in the ecosystem. In addition to feeding on garden plants, crop plants, and weeds, it consumes decaying plant and animal material and ingests soil to obtain calcium. In turn, snails are an important food source for small mammals, predatory insects, other snails, and many bird species—ducks, in particular, are fond of them.
Snail farming, known as heliciculture, is enjoying a small renaissance in the United States. Wild foraging is also possible. After capture, the standard practice is to let snails fast for about a week, then purge them by feeding cornmeal to clear the digestive system. But caution is necessary—wild snails can carry Angiostrongylus cantonensis, or rat lungworm, a parasite that can cause meningitis in humans. Fully cooked snails are safe to eat, and farm-raised snails are produced under strict regulations.
Speaking of snails in captivity, their sex life is anything but boring. Brown garden snails are hermaphrodites, bearing both male and female reproductive organs. But because of their anatomy, they cannot self-fertilize. Courtship involves hours of circling and touching. Eventually, each snail stabs the other with a “love dart”—a sharp spear of calcium carbonate. The snail’s poor eyesight means the stab may miss or, in some cases, pass clear through its partner’s head. Mating typically follows the dart exchange. The dart’s function appears to be hormonal: it helps the recipient store more sperm. Snails can mate multiple times, acting as both male and female. Each lays up to 50 eggs per batch, as many as six times per year.
So far, we’ve covered mostly the quirky and culinary sides of C. aspersum, but its invasive nature can’t be ignored. Wherever it has been introduced for food, it has become a garden and agricultural pest. In California, the brown garden snail can be especially destructive in home gardens and citrus groves.
Molluscicides—chemicals designed to kill mollusks—are effective but should be used cautiously. Folk remedies like coffee grounds or beer traps have limited success. Barriers made of diatomaceous earth, copper sulfate, or copper bands may help protect trees and plants.
One biological control method involves the decollate snail, Rumina decollata. Also native to the Mediterranean, the decollate snail feeds on the eggs and juveniles of other snails. It has been approved for use in California’s major citrus-producing counties, including Riverside. Dr. Mark Hoddle, director of UC Riverside’s Center for Invasive Species Research, notes that decollates may be effective not only because they prey on young snails, but also because they compete with garden snails for rotting organic material.
Dr. Hoddle offers one more suggestion that brings us full circle: “Why not harvest the thousands of wild snails and eat them?” The practice of consuming invasive species—called invasivory or invasophagy—may help control pests that are otherwise difficult to manage.
In the end, the double life of the brown garden snail may simply be in the eye of the beholder.
This article benefited from the input of Dr. Mark Hoddle, Director of UCR’s Center for Invasive Species Research.
Norm Ellstrand is an emeritus Distinguished Professor of Genetics and former Director of the California Agriculture and Food Enterprise at the University of California Riverside.
The city’s beloved Peregrine Falcons have mysteriously vanished from their longtime nesting spot atop the downtown jail. Could avian flu be to blame—or is there still hope for their return?
Riverside has its own cryptid legend—the chupacabra. While skeptics point to mangy coyotes, eyewitnesses claim something larger and more menacing lurks in the shadows.
