An official website of the United States government.
Heliciculture is the science of snail rearing (or farming). Edible land snails provide a high protein and low cholesterol food source. Snails can be raised in a variety of environments, but because of their potential as an invasive species, their enclosures (indoors or outdoors) should be impenetrable.
Search the NAL Collections
History of Snail Farming
Rust, E.W. Rust. Edible Snails (archive.org). United States Department of Agriculture. Yearbook of Agriculture 1914. p. 491-503.
"Of Snails" in Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and Varro. Trans. "A Virginia Farmer," from Varro's Rerum Rusticarum, Libri III.(archive.org) New York: The MacMillan Company, 1913. pp. 325-327. Project Gutenberg e-book edition.
Farming Snails
-
Heliciculture
Wikipedia.
Article describes farming edible land snails, snail species, processing snails, and U.S. restrictions and regulations.
-
Farming Snails 1: Farming Snails 1: Learning about snails; building a pen; and food and shelter plants (PDF, 68 pages)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 1986)
This Better Farming Series booklet explains where to get snails, locating and building a pen, and plants to help the snails thrive.
-
Farming Snails 2: Choosing Snails; Care and Harvesting; Further Improvement (PDF, 48 pages)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 1986).
This Better Farming Series booklet addresses how to select and care for snails, when and how to build a second pen, how to harvest snails, and more.
-
USDA ITP Terrestrial Mollusk Tool
This identification tool supports federal, state, and other agencies or organizations within the U.S. concerned with the detection and identification of mollusks of agricultural importance and quarantine significance.
Regulations, Permits and Restrictions
-
State Regulations for Snail Farming
Contact your State's Agriculture Department to determine which state laws may apply to raising or importing snails. Individual states may inspect and approve of snail farming facilities. Additional State government agencies may also be involved, including natural resources, fish and wildlife, or environmental resources.
-
Snails and Slugs
USDA. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
"A PPQ 526 plant pest permit is required for the importation or interstate transport of mollusks that feed upon or infest plants or plant products. USDA may authorize interstate movement of live snails for the purpose of establishing a snail farm only in those instances where an applicant has received approval from their State Agricultural Official and the APHIS State Plant Health Director. The permit applicant must obtain, in writing, State Agricultural Official concurrence before a movement permit will be issued."
The Containment Guidelines for Nonindigenous, Phytophagous Mollusks (pdf, 33 KB) are a reference to help design, build, maintain, and operate a facility.
-
Low-acid Canned Food
USDA. Food and Drug Administration.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the canning of low-acid foods such as snails. Federal Regulations require commercial processors of shelf stable acidified foods and low-acid canned foods in a hermetically sealed container to be sold in the United States to register each establishment and file scheduled processes with the Food and Drug Administration for each product, product style, container size and type and processing method (21 CFR 108). Instructions are available on the web site.