Linda Burleson, age 10, of Gary, Indiana, for her question:
What do snails eat?
We share our lovely world with about 50,000 different kinds of snail, and most of them live in the sea. Naturally, the little slowpokes must eat whatever is right there so the menu of a land snail is not the same as the menu of a sea snail. However, both land and sea snails go about dining in the same unusual style.
If you grow flowers or vegetables, you soon find out what the average garden snail likes for dinner. He helps himself to your pansy plants and dives into your dahlias; he chews into your lettuce leaves and samples all the salad greenery. Whatever he chooses, almost certainly it will be your favorite this or that.
However, about 50,000 other snails are not such pests. Many of them live their quiet lives in woods and meadows and since they sleep during the day, we hardly ever see them. At night, when the air is cool and moist, they come out to dine. All these land dwelling snails are vegetarians, but unlike the pesky garden snail they do not insist on fresh greenery. In fact, they usually prefer plant food that has started to decay.
The snails of the woods and meadows feast on last year's fallen leaves. This is one reason why the old leaves disappear. They are devoured by secretive snails. The ground in the wild woods contains sleeping mushrooms and toadstools. These and other fungus plants are masses of rooty fibers called mycelium. The snails of the wild woods enjoy mycelium as much as you enjoy ice cream.
Land snails have lungs for breathing air but sea snails have gills for taking dissolved oxygen from the water. All snails need moisture and the land snails must hide from the heat. During dry spells, they seal themselves inside their shells and wait for a shower which may be a long time. The sea snails have no such problems. But often their favorite foods are harder to find.
Most sea snails dine almost entirely on alga plants. The large algae float around as great gobs of seaweed. But there are zillions of tiny one celled alga plants also. They are too small for your eyes to see but snails thrive on them.
A few sea snails also eat a little meat, either fresh or partly decayed. One of these is the large graceful whelk. He sifts bits of rotting fish and other meaty seafood from the water.
A snail seems to chew bites from his vegetable, though actually the little muncher has no teeth. What he has is a remarkable tongue called a radula. This radula is a long supple ribbon and its skin is jam packed with tiny sharp bumps. When a snail rubs his radula over his vegetables, it acts like a saw.
Most garden snails wear brownish shells to match the earth and the fallen leaves. A few have orange or other bright stripes on their shells. The sea snails are more gaudy and their shells tend to be much tougher. They also come in assorted shapes, decorated with lovely pearly colors. All of them eat scraps of seaweed but some of them also enjoy scraps of meat.