Do snails have a 'homing instinct'?

Ted Thornhill - 4th August, 2010

Keen gardener Mrs Ruth Brooks has begun a down-to-earth experiment to discover whether snails have a homing instinct.

The 69-year-old, who’s also a writer and keen amateur scientist, has been battling the slimy creatures for years and has spent hundreds of pounds keeping them at bay.

However, she’s been fighting them humanely, without putting down slug pellets, which she believes is bad for the soil and visiting wildlife, such as birds and squirrels.

One of the methods she’s been deploying in her Totnes, Devon, home is to physically remove the snails and put them on nearby wasteland.

Despite this, Mrs Brooks still has a snail problem – and now she’s begun an experiment to see if they are simply returning back to her garden.

Green-fingered types have long-held that snails do have a kind of in-built sat-nav, but scientists dismiss them as being far too simple to possess a homing instinct.

She’s hoping to solve the mystery once and for all with the help of Dr Dave Hodgson, a bioscience expert from the University of Exeter.

Their study is part of BBC Radio 4’s Material World BBC amateur Scientist of the Year contest.

Ms Brooks said: ‘I've always wanted to know whether the snails that decimate my plants just come back when I move them, and if they do, what is their homing distance? How far away would I have to move them so they won't come back?

‘We're hoping the evidence will give us an insight into the behaviour of snails, as well as help us find a way to deal with the problems they pose.’

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/837065-do-snails-have-a-homing-instinct