Creepy, Slimy Snails

[45 Minutes]

There are as many as 50,000 species of mollusks, another name for snails. These gastropods have been able to adapt their interesting mode of locomotion to a wide range of water and land habitats. Enjoy watching your snails slime as they walk.

You'll need:

• live land snails • large wide-mouth jar or small aquarium if you have one • cheesecloth • large rubber band • black construction paper • damp soil • pieces of lettuce and celery

What to do:

1. If possible, print out these directions. Read them through before you begin.
2. Gather everything you’ll need and always remember science safety.
3. Find some land snails around your home or in the park. They like moist soil found around most gardens. (Snails also like to eat plants in gardens, so you would be doing a gardener a favor to remove a few.)
4. Put a 3-4 inch layer of damp soil in your jar. (Soil from the garden area where you found the snails would work well.)
5. After placing the snails in the jar, attach a piece of cheesecloth tightly around the opening of the jar with the rubber band. This will keep your slimy snails inside where they belong.
6. Put your jar of snails in a cool, shady place.
7. Sprinkle the soil with water everyday to keep it moist.
8. Make sure to leave a few pieces of lettuce and celery in the jar for snails to munch on.

How to use:

1. After a few days, move one or more of your "pet" snails to the middle of a sheet of black construction paper.
2. Surround the paper with pieces of lettuce and celery.
3. Your snail will very slowly creep to the food. As it travels to dinner, it will leave a trail of its slimy mucus.
4. When you are finished observing your snails, return them to their natural habitat.

Useful information:

Snails move by means of a wavelike series of muscular contractions along the bottom of their foot. This motion is often aided by cilia and, in land snails, by a track of laid-down slime. Another name for this slime is mucus. This mucus also protects snails from sharp rocks and other harmful objects they might pass over as they move around their natural habitat.