How to grow snails at home?

Sometimes the most incredible idea of ​​earning is capable of bringing good profit and stable income, for example, breeding bees at home, which we talked about in the previous article.

Entrepreneurs often complain about the fullness of niches and a lot of competition, but as they say, he who seeks will always find. I bring to your attention another fresh idea of ​​earning money - growing grape snails as a business at home.

Snail fashion

It is worth noting that there are many types of snails, but only grape snails are considered suitable for consumption. In many European countries, snails are in great demand among the population, which cannot be said about Russia. In the CIS countries, these exotic products are served only in the most expensive restaurants, the cost of the dish is quite high, but despite this, unlike, for example, France, in our country, snails are not very popular, most likely due to several other flavors. people's preferences.

Benefits of snail meat

Before we talk about how to start your own snail breeding business, it is worth mentioning the benefits of this product.

• The medicine. Oddly enough, but snail meat is in incredible demand in the medical field of activity, as a raw material for the creation of many drugs. For many years I have been using snail extracts in the production of anti-aging drugs, aphrodisiacs, as well as in the composition of drugs to restore metabolism.
• Cooking. Snail meat contains a large amount of vitamins. This delicacy is rich in protein, iron, calcium and vitamins, which help to saturate the body with useful properties. This dietary product is desirable for the elderly and pregnant women. Snail meat is quickly absorbed by the body, improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, fills the need for calcium.

Business registration

If you decide to start your own business, you will need to register as an individual entrepreneur or limited liability company. In addition, it is necessary to obtain permits for activities from the sanitary and fire service. Without a certificate of product quality from the veterinary service, you will not be able to sell it, do not forget about it.

Breeding grape snails at home

First of all, you need to purchase snails. The approximate cost of one adult is from $ 4. For a start, you should buy about 300-400 pieces, it will cost you 1200-1600 dollars.

You can buy snails for breeding from foreign suppliers from Poland, Tunisia, Czech Republic, Germany. It is worth giving preference only to trusted suppliers of shellfish who have been on the market for more than one year and guarantee the quality of products.

Feeding. On average, about 20 kg of compound feed is required for feed for 300 snails. The average price per kilogram of compound feed is from 300 rubles.

Shellfish care

Snails are unpretentious creatures, caring for them is simple, but it is still worth understanding the whole process of breeding and growing molluscs.

Premises

Choose a well-ventilated area when breeding shellfish.Pay special attention to humidity, it should be at least 85%. The optimum temperature for breeding grape snails at home is from 20-23 degrees with a plus sign. The temperature in the room should be stable, this will ensure rapid reproduction and growth of molluscs.

Conditions of detention

Special glass terrariums are used to keep molluscs. Be sure to keep them clean, regularly clean them of mucus in order to avoid the growth of harmful bacteria.

Feeding

Snails feed on a special feed mixture (ground cereals, herbs, chalk).

Breeding snails

The reproduction process of snails occurs on its own, the main thing is to provide individuals with comfortable conditions of detention at an optimal temperature. Molluscs are housed in separate containers in pairs for breeding. Despite the fact that molluscs are hermaphrodites, the mating process is necessary for fertilization. After mating, the eggs are placed in an incubator. Young mollusks can be transferred to an adult enclosure already 6 weeks after emergence.

Approximately one adult is capable of laying about 50 eggs per year. The ripening period of molluscs is from 6 months to 1.5 years.

Sales market and profit

The demand for snail meat is quite high. As a rule, most of the products are sold abroad, but sales options can also be found in Russia. Basically, your customers can be elite restaurants on the menu, which include shellfish dishes.

The cost of a kilogram of shellfish is about 2–5 euros. Thus, we can conclude that with the mass cultivation of snails, you can earn good money.

I wish you success in all your endeavors. I hope you find this article helpful. Also, we recommend reading about another non-standard form of earnings - breeding worms at home as a business. Be sure to tell us about your achievements in the comments.

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Tens of thousands of small and medium-sized farmers work alongside large agricultural holdings that conduct business in many sectors of the agro-industrial complex, sometimes doing the most unexpected business. Imagine, in 10 months of 2016, Ukrainian companies exported 347 tons of snails. Despite the fact that it is small farms that are engaged in breeding snails, and in Europe it is believed that this is a family business for the lazy.

Snails have unique meat

The fashion for it came to us from Europe. In Italy, Spain, France and Greece, they are often eaten for dinner with a glass of good wine. And in Ukraine they are served only in the most expensive restaurants. The taste is vaguely similar to chicken.

Diet meat, contains vitamins, protein, iron and calcium, is quickly absorbed, improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and potency, is useful for the elderly and pregnant women. That is why it is so expensive - from $ 10 per kilogram. However, Ukrainians prefer to make money from breeding rather than eating snails.

In 2016, Ukraine exported snails 7 times more than lard - 347 tons of snails versus 51 tons of lard. Ukrainian snails are bought in Romania and Lithuania for $ 1 per kilogram. There they are processed and sold to France, Hungary, Italy and Poland for $ 5.5-6.6 per kilogram.

Not all snails are edible

Most often, Ukrainian farmers breed a grape snail, which is also called Burgundy, as well as large gray Helix Aspersa Maxima and small gray Helix Aspersa Muller snails. The latter are popular with Polish consumers and entrepreneurs.

You can also eat snail caviar.

There are most of all grape snails in Ukraine, they are also the most valuable. Their meat is healthier than other species. They are called grape because they were first discovered on a grape leaf. They live in orchards, vegetable gardens, hollows, in grass and flowers, and are buried underground for the winter. And they crawl over the grapes in search of food.

They live long, on average 8–9 years. In autumn and winter they hibernate, waking up only in April.With the onset of early autumn cold weather, they begin to bury themselves in the soil to a depth of 10 cm, in rare cases up to 30 cm.

The color of the shell of grape snails depends on the habitat: in a dry place, the shell is lighter and harder, in a humid environment it is darker and softer.

First you need to collect the herd

Yes, you read that right, a group of snails is called a herd. They are hermaphrodites, any mollusk can produce offspring. Grape snails usually have up to 60 cubs per year. You can get them in gardens, meadows, vegetable gardens, flower beds. But you are unlikely to be able to find 500 pieces in a short time, and there is no sense in less - it will not be possible to form a broodstock and make a profit.

You can buy both individually and by weight, it is even more profitable.

The snail business is well developed in Poland, so you can find top quality snails there. If you are serious about breeding these molluscs, head to Poland for the first broodstock you will use for breeding.

In addition, in Poland, you can improve the skills in their cultivation.

Registration of activities is indispensable

You must at least register as an entrepreneur, draw up documents on the code of activity related to fish products, crustaceans and molluscs (KVED 05.00.11.300) and be ready for inspections by veterinary services. It is possible to supply snails to Ukrainian restaurants and export to Europe only if there is a certificate confirming the quality of the meat.

Snail farming takes patience

They need comfortable conditions. The ideal temperature for containment is 23 degrees Celsius. The soil should be saturated with calcium and regularly moistened, they will not multiply in dry. If the snail does not create suitable conditions, it will not be in a hurry with the offspring - snails can keep embryos in themselves for a long time. Snail farm pens must be cleaned regularly or they will get sick and die.

The snail is ready for use at the age of six months to three years, but most often at one and a half years.

Snails need comfortable breeding conditions.

After mating, both individuals lay eggs.

Most often they breed from March to May. Two weeks after mating, they are ready to lay eggs. It takes about two hours for the mollusk to do this. The snail covers the eggs with earth. After about three weeks, offspring are born. Experts advise to allocate a special molluscary and plant individuals there, which have begun the mating season. Then all the caviar will be in one place and it will be more convenient to get it.

Create several pens where snails will grow for up to six months. Since they do not grow evenly, it is easier to keep track of the offspring by distributing them by size.

Two optimal ways to breed snails: corrals and greenhouses

Two methods of snail breeding have taken root in Ukraine. The first is “natural”, when snails are bred outdoors in pens. In this case, the costs are minimal: for feed and materials for fencing. However, there are more disadvantages than advantages here. It is necessary to protect snails from predators, it is more difficult to control humidity, this method is only suitable for summer.

The second option is greenhouses. It is possible to breed in greenhouses not only in summer, but more investment is needed. For 15 kg of broodstock, 750 adults, 4 sq. m of a closed herd room, 18 sq. m premises for incubation of eggs and young stock, 8 plastic boxes 1x0.5 m for keeping adult snails of broodstock, 150 plastic cuvettes for keeping young stock of small size, several metal racks, 400 sq. m of a fenced enclosure for growing the main herd.

Snails can feed on fallen leaves, weeds, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, dandelions, sorrel stalks and other plants. You should also feed them with milk powder, compound feed and chalk. The proportions depend on the number of individuals in the herd. To make them large and fleshy, you need special food for snails.

Growing snails in greenhouses is more profitable.

You can sell snails both alive and processed there.

As soon as the first batch has reached the optimal growth level at which they can be removed from the shell, at about 9 months, select the largest individuals for the broodstock. And the rest can be sold.

Before you kill a snail, you need to starve it for 3-4 days, so the body will be cleansed as much as possible. After that, kill and remove the shell from her. Then quickly freeze and send for sale.

You can also sell live snails. But it is impossible to keep living and dead individuals next to each other.

A farm near Vinnitsa provides shellfish to Ukrainian restaurants

Entrepreneur Dmitry Butenko drew attention to shellfish in a supermarket. I was surprised at the high price and decided to try to breed snails on my own. I brought the herd for the farm from Latvia. Breeds grape snails in an old garden near Kozyatyn in the Vinnitsa region, and processes them in a special workshop near Kiev. Snails from his farm can be tasted in local restaurants. The production is practically waste-free, since many shellfish shells are spoiled during the extraction of meat, and those that remain are in demand among artists and designers.

 

Dmitry Butenko grows snails in the Vinnytsia region.

Snail farming is just one example of an unusual business. But even not they can be earned in different ways. Besides meat, you can grow them for cosmetic purposes. But these are completely different mollusks and a different niche.

Interested in snails? We have a new material: How to start breeding snails

There are many seafood lovers among people, especially octopuses, squids - cephalopods, or shrimps, mussels, crayfish and crabs. Gastropod molluscs are much less commonly used, and snail farming is currently only of assistance to those who collaborate with restaurants offering Greek, Spanish, Italian or French cuisine.

Snail as food

Gastropods carry a shell on their back, there are a great many species, but people call all of them the same - snails. In many European countries, this is not even a delicacy, but a daily meal, which it became in the distant Middle Ages, and certainly not from a good life. However, now they are enjoyed by the most fastidious gourmets. There is evidence that even in ancient Greece, snail breeding was a frequent profession. It is much easier than growing vegetables, wheat or cattle.

In Russia, this food is still exotic, in Russian cuisine the meat of not only snails, but also of "sea reptiles" is practically not used. But restaurants of certain cuisines of the world more and more often appear in our country, including those with such delicacies, and therefore there is a demand for snail breeding. Today it is possible to buy a kilogram bag of gastropod meat without any problems, although it cannot be said that the demand for it is fully satisfied. For those who want to occupy this almost empty niche, this article is intended.

Start

Snail farming has a huge advantage over any other food business. They can be grown both in a rural house or in the country, and in a city apartment. To start breeding edible snails, you need to register a business entity, where you indicate the code 10.20 (OKPD 2) - "Canned and processed fish, molluscs and crustaceans."

Then you need to get advice from the veterinary service with subsequent permission. It is not free, so you need to have at least fifty thousand rubles in your pocket to complete all kinds of paperwork. Breeding and raising snails is a regulated production, where there are various technical regulations, since water resources are used. Legislative acts in this case may differ significantly by region - somewhere this activity is limited, somewhere it is encouraged.But additional permits will probably be needed, since snail breeding is supposed to be a business.

Views

Most likely, the meat of the first consignments of shellfish will have to be sent to the laboratory, where it is carefully checked, and a permit will be issued based on the results of this check. This is the practice that exists in our country, regardless of the region. The most interesting thing is that snails are most often sold alive. They are not fed for several days for cleansing, then, in the same way - alive - they are offered to the buyer. Breeding edible snails is not too difficult, since this living creature is unpretentious. And you can keep them with almost no hassle.

Traditionally, the cultivation of grape snails - Helix pomatia is in demand. This is the most widespread species, widely spreading in the central and southern territories of the Russian Federation. They are fairly large and nutritious, and it is they that have been eaten since antiquity in Western countries. Achatina fulica is a different species, and breeding Achatina snails is much more difficult than grape snails. These are inhabitants of southern latitudes, and natural survival in our harsh climate is completely impossible for them. If she lived in the nature of European countries with a mild climate, the locals would not be happy - this is an extremely fruitful pest of agricultural plants.

Differences

It will not be difficult to distinguish these species from each other. Achatina is much larger, but grape meat is more nutritious and healthy. In terms of complexity, a farm for breeding Achatina snails is no different from one that specializes in grape snails, at least initially in terms of cost and content, they are practically equal. The only and cardinal difference is that if the snails are kept in the fresh air, then the Achatins, as Africans, will not survive our winter, but the grapes will go into hibernation, and therefore they are not afraid of any frost.

Most often, both are bred on farms, this diversifies the assortment. This also includes the cultivation of ampularia snails. There are many other species that are quite suitable for eating: Sphincterochila candidisima, Theba pisana, Cepæa nemoralis, Iberus alonensis, Otala vermiculata, Otala lactea, Archelix punctata, Helix lucorum, Helix hortensis, Helix aperta, Helix adanensis and many others. However, all of them are quite difficult to obtain, some are generally exotic. And since a rare buyer in Russia understands the types of snails, demand may not appear. However, if the opportunity arises, farmers also breed rare species.

Time

The snail is a leisurely creature, and this is manifested in everything. She not only moves without haste, but also matures extremely slowly. That is why its transformation into an edible individual will have to wait. Patience is especially needed when watching snails breed. The clutch of eggs can be delayed for up to a year or more if the conditions of detention cause any suspicion in the snail and uncertainty about the future. After fertilization, she will safely carry the biomaterial inside herself for as long as she wants.

At best, if everything goes according to plan, you need to wait six months for the offspring. At worst, up to three years. Artificial maintenance slightly accelerates this process: the snail acquires edibility in a year and a half. Breeding grape snails in natural conditions will probably take all three years. That is why wise farmers immediately buy sexually mature, adults, and almost immediately get offspring. Snails are hermaphrodites, and therefore all individuals lay eggs, and this is the most interesting thing in how snails breed.

Purchase

The grape snail produces approximately sixty eggs per year. Achatina in this respect are more profitable - their clutch is up to one hundred and sixty eggs. If the farmer has decided to breed grapes, then he needs at least eight hundred pieces.Today - about fifty rubles per individual, sexually mature is more expensive. However, it is better to buy the whole lot in bulk - the whole mother tribe. Only two hundred pieces are enough to start a business with Akhatin.

A grape snail weighs about fifty grams, and Achatina weighs all seventy, so it is better to take snails not by the piece, but by weight. Professional breeders trade in this way, but amateurs usually sell in small batches and by the piece. Many people give snails for nothing, because they have bred too much in the aquarium, but such a purchase has little prospect: it will take a lot of time to grow, and food for snails is not free.

Collection

Molluscs can be harvested in the garden in one to two months. The garden, of course, should be very large, and even better - a vineyard. It will take a lot of patience here, since it takes eight hundred grape snails to start a business, and they don't live next to each other. They are also hiding! We'll have to walk and crawl, bend and jump, which, in principle, is useful for health, but extremely tiring.

And, of course, Achatina cannot be found in the wild and in any garden in Russia - not a single specimen. Therefore, it is better to spend a little time looking for a wholesaler, find a good supplier, buy adult selected snails, and then you will only have to watch their mating games. It is unlikely that more than ten thousand rubles will be needed for the purchase, but the hassle of collecting will be avoided. As a result, time is saved, which is also money.

Pests

Breeding snails in an apartment and in a natural environment is very different. Farmers usually set aside a separate, completely fenced area (otherwise the inhabitants will slowly but irrevocably creep in different directions). Fifty square meters is enough. This site is equipped as an ordinary garden. In addition to the danger of sprawling snails in case of insufficient isolation of their habitat, there are many others.

In the natural environment, there are a lot of inhabitants who are not averse to feasting on snails. First of all, these are birds. The scarecrow is unlikely to completely secure this business, but a canopy will definitely help, you can just use a tarpaulin. Birds are afraid of anything that looks like human habitation. Also, many species of large beetles feed on snails. If you fight them with pesticides, you can poison the snails, so beetles are perhaps the most serious enemy on the way to starting a business.

Animals

If the fence is made with high quality, the main natural enemy on the site will not be. This is a hedgehog. However, moles appear from the ground, which also consider snails a delicacy. There is no way to cover the ground with anything, since the snails themselves need soil, and the moles will have to fight in some other way, of which, in principle, there are many.

The fence at the top should be rounded inward so that lovers of verticals - snails - never get out. Some farmers instead use a more efficient method - supply a weak electric current (no more than ten volts, otherwise the snail will have to be eaten immediately, it will be fully cooked). The mollusks crawl to the top of the fence, receive a small discharge and fall back.

Conditions

Fresh air is suitable only for grape snails, since Achatina cannot withstand temperatures below 3-4 degrees Celsius, they are not trained in suspended animation, and therefore they simply die. Grape snails, on the other hand, tolerate cold weather one hundred percent well.

True, three months of hibernation is a loss for a businessman, since snails sleep, buried in the ground, and do not reproduce. But in warm times, everything is fine with them. But we must remember that allocating a plot for them and protecting them from pests is far from everything. They definitely need plants on the site, a special composition of the soil, regularly updated and dug up.

How to feed snails?

You should not hope for a harvest of fruits from this site, because the snail eats literally everything with appetite. Let weeds grow there, mollusks eat them with pleasure, and the best thing is to plant wild grapes, they are unpretentious and are the best food for snails. What else to feed the snails? Fertilizing the soil, weeds are thrown into the open-air cage, just mown, not forgetting about mineral fertilizers - without calcium, the formation of a shell does not occur. It is imperative to moisten the site and avoid direct sunlight (again, a tarpaulin canopy to help).

In the apartment

Of course, in the apartment, mollusks grow almost twice as fast, and in winter they do not sleep. Achatina will generally feel at home in Africa. However, breeding snails in an apartment at the initial stage will cost much more. First, you need a fairly spacious room, at least twenty square meters, where the molluscs will be located (terrariums are used, but with self-made filling).

Here you can create conditions for the reproduction of any species of snails, even African ones. The ambient temperature should be at least twenty-three degrees Celsius, the humidity should also be kept at a high level. The soil must be saturated with calcium and mud (mollusks willingly eat it, since it contains the nutrients necessary for their organisms). Food is needed necessarily of plant origin - again, leaves and weeds. Two or three times a week in the molluscs, harvesting is done with detailed digging of the soil, otherwise the snails will die, suffocating in the decaying environment.

Caviar

Home breeding is good because it is much easier to get valuable snail eggs. Entrepreneurs usually set aside one in ten molluscs for mating games in order to get the clutches that snails buried in the soil without hindrance and not disturb the rest of the inhabitants. Collecting caviar is a rather laborious process, but it sometimes gives more money than shellfish sold to restaurants.

By the way, you can sell snails not only to restaurants. They are eagerly bought by pharmaceutical companies, and by any, even small and complete illiquid assets. Gastropods are used in the production of the drug helicidin - the basis for cough medicine. Also, some chemical industries are interested in such a purchase - they need mollusks to extract lectins from them, which are used in industry. If you are lucky enough to get such orders, the farmer (entrepreneur) will receive a guaranteed income (and even somewhat more substantial than when working with restaurants).

The grape snail, the cultivation of which began 40 years ago, from the object of a small handicraft industry has become the subject of large-scale agro-industrial production.

"Green" farm

For many years in Europe, this type of mollusk was collected in its natural habitat. This led to a decrease in the population of wild snails, so a ban was introduced on their collection.

With the adoption of strict sanitary requirements for food quality, they are no longer considered a food source anymore. This is due to the requirements to protect consumers from toxic plants or hazardous chemicals.

After years of experimentation and testing, Italy has developed a method for raising snails in open “pastures” that has proven to be less labor intensive and more cost-effective than growing them indoors or in greenhouses.

The economic benefits are realized after the initial installation of the perimeter and internal fence. Financial returns are expected no earlier than in 12-14 months.

The operating costs of this method (in comparison with greenhouse production or indoors) are lower, and the main costs are only for seeds, soil preparation and sowing of vegetables.

The grape snail, whose price in our country ranges from 3 to 3.7 euros per kilogram, is a profitable breeding object.

Site selection and soil structure

The snail farm is organized on open pastures with suitable plants grown on them, which serve as food and shelter for shellfish. No shade coating is used. When choosing a location for a snail farm, the prevailing wind direction is taken into account, since strong winds dry out the soil.

Soil analysis and decontamination is carried out to ensure suitable conditions for growing leafy green vegetables and eliminating carnivorous insects and pests. Loose soil with an acidity of 5.8–7.5 pH is recommended. Too acidic soil is unsuitable for snail production. The calcium content in it should be about 3-4%. The soil structure is medium to light. Clay soil is unsuitable for laying eggs, as it is too difficult for snails to dig and it becomes waterlogged easily.

It is important that plants and shellfish are kept moist by dew, rain or controlled fog. The snail (photo shown in the article) moves more easily when the leaves and the ground are wet. They eat more and grow faster under the right environmental conditions.

Rain and controlled irrigation are essential for snail production.

Good soil drainage is essential so that water does not accumulate on the ground in puddles.

The breeding area should be free of large trees as they attract birds of prey, shade plants and prevent dew formation.

Where to buy grape snails for breeding? Farmers who purchase shellfish from snail collectors or from the market should expect high mortality rates as a result of poor adaptation to other foods. The most reliable source of breeding stock is from well-known producers or agricultural institutions. Such a grape snail (its price will be higher) is better and safer, since it received proper nutrition from birth and was not damaged during collection and storage.

Plot size

Grape snail farms vary in size, depending on who runs them. Lovers who grow molluscs in small quantities use an area of ​​10 to 20 acres. Farmers who do this as an alternative to other activities occupy an average of 30 acres to 1 hectare. Large commercial growers usually start with 2 hectares and can use 30 hectares as their business grows. Additional acreage outside of those reserved for snails is taken up by auxiliary crops such as sunflower.

Site preparation

The site is cleared of grass and weeds by using a contact herbicide. The soil is then cultivated with a rotary cultivator and a fence is erected around the perimeter. Fertilizers are introduced into the soil, chemical disinfestation from insects and animals is carried out. The site is then divided into sections for the first year production, and wooden posts are installed to support the internal fences.

The soil is prepared again by subsequent rotary loosening and, if required, adding lime, and irrigation is also established. Sowing is done after the surface has been leveled and internal fences have been erected. Finally, to facilitate maintenance, the lanes are again treated with a contact herbicide.

Feed

How to feed grape snails? Since these shellfish are vegetarians, they love a variety of vegetables and grains. However, feeding in "production pasture" systems typically only includes plants with fleshy green leaves that contain mineral salts, nitrates, sulfates and carbonates to help create shells.

Plants have two functions in efficient snail production. They are food and protect from sun, rain and hail. Such plants are, for example, burdock, plantain, sorrel, chervil and sunflower.In Italy, beets, kale, chicory, artichokes, radishes and sunflowers are planted.

They are sown by hand to ensure a dense soil cover, and the type of planting depends on the season (winter and summer crops). Sowing time is of great importance - there should be enough vegetation to constantly have something to feed the snails. In order to maximize the yield and production of shellfish, the rotation of the cultivated area is important.

After the emergence of plants, a snail is selected (photo is given in the article) for brood and placed behind the fence at the rate of 25 Helix aspera or 20 Helix pomatia per square meter.

Planting times of summer and winter crops may differ, as can their type.

External fencing

The outer perimeter is fenced with galvanized iron sheets. They are buried to a depth of 30-40 cm and reinforced with supporting wooden or iron posts. The main purpose of the perimeter is to prevent the entry of predators, especially those that are capable of burrowing. There must be a clear area between the perimeter and the internal fence. If any of the snails breaks through the internal fences, the walkway and external fence will prevent it from going further.

The addition of wire mesh and electrified wire on top of galvanized sheets provides better security for shellfish production.

Internal fencing

Internal fences are used to separate the breeding and feeding areas. The fences are made of strong black polyethylene of the Helitex brand. It has two downward-facing valves at a height of 40 cm and 70 cm from the ground to prevent snails from crawling. Wooden posts to support polyethylene are installed at a distance of 3-4 meters. They are buried in the ground at least 10 cm deep. The zone is usually 20-45 m long and 2-4 m wide.

When newborn snails hatch in the reproductive sector, the fences can be moved.

Pests

There are many animals and insects that can cause problems with snail production.

These include carnivorous beetles such as carabidi, calosomidi, lampiridi, and especially stafilinids, which attack and kill the young. Beetles live in soil and love wet environments as much as snails. Stafilinids pose the greatest threat. During site preparation, chemical pest control is mainly used to eradicate these pests.

Crows and magpies are birds whose diet also includes a grape snail. The shell is broken by the beak, and the contents are eaten. The thrushes beat the mollusks against the stones until they are freed from the shell.

For lizards, snakes and toads, snails are a treat, especially when young, so the outer fence should be dug into the ground to prevent these predators from entering. Rats also feed on snails, especially in winter when food sources are limited. Rabbits, hares and moles are also a problem because they eat up crops and damage snails by trampling them.

Grape snail: breeding

In early spring, breeding snails are selected for reproduction and placed in a new environment. They are selected for size and quality and transferred to a sector with grown leaves allocated for breeding.

In the first year, no more than 25 Helix aspersa per square meter are placed in the reproduction zone. Overcrowding will cause dwarfism, low weight, and mortality from mucus on the ground.

The selected snails are monitored closely for the first few days as they will attempt to flee and may suffer from environmental stress.

Crops grown in the breeding zone should not be higher than 50 cm. They are cut with a brushcutter, encouraging the growth of new leaves and improving air circulation. In the second year, the density drops to 15 snails per square meter as the mortality rate falls. Shellfish are bred locally, so they better acclimate to the environment and experience less stress.

Grape snail: care, maintenance

After birth, young snails are allowed to grow for about three months before being placed in fresh harvest feeding areas. It is important that the crops grow densely and provide protection from the summer sun. Crops should not rise more than 25 cm and should also be pruned to encourage new leaf growth and air circulation. During the growing season, when the plantings are depleted, it is necessary to supplement the food with cut plants and dry food.

Hibernation

In December and January, snail activity ceases and they are sealed in a shell for hibernation. In cold climates in the fall, molluscs are covered with a thin film of material that protects them from hypothermia. Due to this, the soil temperature rises by 5-10 degrees. At the end of autumn, the hedge is removed, the remaining plantings are plowed in and the soil is prepared for a new summer culture.

Manufacturing problems

The reasons for failure are often:

• Bad management.
• Reproduction problems in connection with the complex biology of snails.
• Insufficient funding.
• Poor soil preparation.
• Wrong choice of crops.
• Insufficient rotation.
• Overproduction.
• The presence of predators and the lack of sufficient water for plants and molluscs.

Collection and preparation for sale

Snails are harvested after they reach maturity. This happens when the edge of the sole becomes hard - the shellfish are ripe and will not grow anymore. The snails are harvested weekly or when it is convenient for the farmer, usually in autumn and spring, and transferred to cages for 7 days to get rid of soil and food debris from their digestive systems. The shellfish are placed in a cool place without food or water in cages made of mesh or wire. During the cleansing period, snails lose 20% of their weight and hide in a shell, but they can remain in this state for two months if kept in a cool place with a temperature of about 4-6 ° C.

Then comes the sale time. Snails are packed in mesh bags (like onions), waxed cardboard boxes or, if there are many, in wooden boxes.

Shellfish are sold in grocery stores and purchased by restaurants. In Italy, for example, food festivals are held regularly, and the use of snails is often their hallmark. 60% of live snails are distributed through fish shops.

Summary

Research into breeding methods for snails over the past 40 years has led to the rationalization and better structure of all methods. The need to streamline this fishery has arisen with the growing consumption of this type of molluscs throughout the world. Better organization of the cropping system has led to a more efficient way of raising snails - "open production".

The grape snail, cultivated in an open environment, produces a lot of high quality meat, it is larger in size and tastier than shellfish grown indoors or in greenhouses.

Success depends on the ability of the potential farmer to apply this production method in the local climatic and environmental conditions. Studies in Italy have shown that the number of commercial snails produced by each individual selected for breeding is on average 20. Molluscs need 10 to 12 months to reach the required size. Mass production of snails is possible as long as there are no major problems during feeding or there is not enough space.

The grape snail, whose cultivation requires a suitable environment, cultivation of certain crops, continuous crop rotation and a low concentration of shellfish, will reward with abundant offspring and rapid growth. Combined with the provision of proper care and safeguarding against predator attacks, snails benefit from completing a full biological cycle in their natural environment, which should result in their high quality.