“These are things that we have had to learn along the way. Traditional snail farming, is very, very intuitive,” said Ms Kudus, though she added that WholeSnail is also trying to bring a data-driven approach to its operations.
“In the beginning, it’s tough. We build all of our prototypes in-house, because there’s no playbook for snails out there.”
Her team has even played music for the snails, which are deaf but can feel vibrations.
Ms Kudus was also keen to dish out fun facts about the invertebrates, including the number of teeth they have – that’s 14,000, arranged in a semi-circle structure called a radula.
And then there are the different types of slime they secrete.
One coats the bottom of the body to help them glide. Another helps it adhere to surfaces; yet another is used for defence.
“When you make them mad, they secrete defensive slime and it forms a sticky barrier to deter predators,” said Mr Laurenz, who’s actually an entomologist or insect scientist by training.
There’s also slime with pheromones, for mating.
