Quick Facts
- Related Topics:
- How fast are snails?
- land snail
- freshwater snail
- marine snail
- tree snail
- On the Web:
- UC IPM - Home and Landscape - Snails and Slugs (Oct. 29, 2026)
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
snail
mollusk
The structure of snail shells explainedOverview of snail shells.
See all videos for this articlesnail, a gastropod, especially one having an enclosing shell, into which it may retract completely for protection. A gastropod lacking a shell is commonly called a slug or sea slug.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.


" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">