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Sticker of Channeled apple snail
Bug card No. 0257 of 1,500

Channeled apple snail

Pomacea canaliculata
Eats: A bit of everythingSnails, slugs and wormsPonds, rivers and shoresNo legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The channeled apple snail is a big water snail with a round shell striped in brown, black and yellow. It breathes with gills and can shut its shell with a little lid, like a trapdoor. It comes from South America, but people have carried it to many other countries, where it eats up rice fields.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect at all, it has no legs! But kids find it on every bug hunt, so it lives in Bug Wiki too.
Lives in
South America, and now also North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, in ponds, lakes, rivers and rice fields
Length
15 cm (5.9 in)
the length of the shell
Top speed
about 0.07 km/h (0.04 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
It does not bite or sting. It can carry a tiny worm that makes people sick if the snail is eaten raw, so always wash your hands after touching snails.
What does it eat?
It eats almost everything: water plants, algae, bits of dead stuff and even small animals. Young snails eat algae, and bigger ones move on to plants.
For real!Photo of Channeled apple snail
Picture by KENPEI. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Channeled apple snail about 15 cm long (5.9 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)A house cat about 50 cm (20 in)
as long as 5 toy building bricks in a rowabout as long as your handcould run across a dinner table in 51 seconds

How big is Channeled apple snail compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its eggs are bright pink or orange, and it lays them on plants and rocks above the water, often at night.

2

Some of these snails are golden or white instead of striped.

3

It is on the list of the 100 worst invasive animals and plants in the world.

4

People brought it to Asia as food and as an aquarium pet, but many escaped and now eat rice crops.

5

A bird called the snail kite loves to eat it in South America.

you asked

Most asked questions about Channeled apple snail

?Why is the channeled apple snail a problem?

Where people carried it to other countries, it eats rice and taro plants and harms the crops.

?How big does a channeled apple snail get?

Its shell can grow up to about 15 centimetres long, as big as a grown-up's hand.

?What do apple snail eggs look like?

They are bright pink or orange clusters stuck on plants or rocks just above the water.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Pomacea canaliculata
Group
Snails, slugs and worms
Family
Ampullariidae
Classification
Gastropoda > Architaenioglossa > Ampullariidae
Lives on
South America, North America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Golden apple snail

Where the facts come from

  1. Pomacea canaliculata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by KENPEI. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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