I have often wondered what the importance of snails is?

to leave slime trails across the porch..?....

To go with the garlic butter and parsley.

i couldnt tell you about snails that live on land but marine snails are pretty important. They’re really great at cleaning aquariums and will eat algae. This in turn makes for a more stable environment in your tank.

Slow needs a mascot?

To learn the life lesson that too much salt will eventually kill you??

They serve the same purpose as humans. They fuck things up and don’t really help.

Really, I looked around and couldn’t find a good thing that they do. They are mostly destructive.

They eat lots of green vegetation that I am very fond of, and seem to be a food source for larger critters…but, I agree. Disgusting if you touch one by accident. And I have only slugs here (snails w/o shells)>

Hey, how species-centric can you get? Stuff wasn’t put here to make us humans happy.
Back off on the poor snails. Live and let live. Sheesh.

They’re very slow food sources for the more quick and clever creatures of the world. Apparently many vertebrates eat them, as well as other snails.

Personally, I always wondered what wasps were good for.

I’d rather have snails around than wasps around.

Sure, but what would you rather be for halloween?

Nothing actually has to be good for anything, there isn’t any such ‘master plan’. Snails are good for eating, living, and breeding. It’s just coincidence if certain species end up inadvertently supporting or hosting one another, or making the growth or existence of another product possible.

They are also carriers for some fascinating parasites that have to pass through multiple stages and multiple host species to reproduce. I am amazed at the complexity of evolution.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/snails_shells/83314

sometimes they have pretty shells…another humancentric idea….

It turns out that snails, as we know them, enjoy reproductive success. Voila!

Thus,not particularly important unless you are a snail looking for some action.

We’re all part of the same planet. Healthy snail populations means healthy Earth.

I firmly believe that snails were placed on this planet to pull tiny handcrafted (dixie cup, toothpick, jujy fruit) wagons across my mom’s kitchen floor. Chariot race, anyone?

Knotmyday: I used to do that when I was a kid. Good memories.

Here’s a serious answer.Snailbot

Excerpt:
“Hosoi is part of a growing group of engineers around the world who are turning not only to snails but also other animals, like cockroaches and crickets, as a source of biological inspiration for designing new robots capable of going places and accomplishing tasks that traditional droids have not been able to do before.”

At UCBerkeley, Robert Full “studies the animals by watching them run on a tiny treadmill-like apparatus or recording the way they manipulate their bodies when they fall off vertical surfaces.”

Snail bigots, recant.

Excellent, Gail!

@Zaku;

Maybe we willl soon be able to harness an Escargatoire ( or rout or walk) of snails or an Intrusion of cockroaches as alternative energy sources.

@Gail – Indeed… Quick, to the patent office! ;-)

Around here the raccoons and some birds eat them.

@tan: where’s “around here”?

At this point to sit in my freezer in their frozen garlic butter sauce until the mood strikes me…..