Monaghan farmer plays matchmaker with ‘lonely hearts’ snails

A Co Monaghan snail farmer is attempting to help thousands of the little creatures on his farm find true love.

Kieran Corley, who harvests snail slime for skincare products at his farm in Scotstown, has a system that gives the monogamous creatures a second chance at finding a mate for life.

The snails will not always find their partner on the first attempt, so he picks out the single snails not yet in a pair at the end of each breeding season.

“I take all of these lonely hearts and transfer them into their own section of the farm to give them one more chance to find a partner,” Mr Corley said.

Mr Corley collects the around 10% of his snails who have not been lucky in love and places them in a separate snail enclosure – called beds – set aside for singles.

“When they meet, their courtship lasts approximately 24 hours, during which time they will slither all over each other until they decide they are a match.”

He said that this has proved quite successful, and that many of the snails will find a partner at this point.

Any that do not are placed into hibernation for the next season.

The 54-year-old father-of-two started with 50,000 snails on his farm and now has more than a million, with the help of his matchmaking efforts.

Snail slime, or snail mucin, is increasingly used in skincare products as it is seen to be packed with key ingredients.

“Mucin is nature’s answer to the skincare wish list of ingredients: hyaluronic acid, allantoin, retinol, vitamin E, glycolic acid, collagen, the list goes on and those in the skincare industry will recognise the wealth of benefits they bring,” Mr Corley said.

“Initially I began raising the snails to sell as food due to a worldwide shortage in their production, but I noticed within months that the scars on my hands had disappeared, and knew I had to pivot into skincare.”

His company Bragan Skincare uses snail mucin as its key ingredient.

He said: “Snail mucin exists for a number of reasons which make it relevant to skincare – mainly healing damaged, inflamed and infected cells, and creating an antibacterial layer between the snail and the ground, but it is also the mechanism by which snails smell out their perfect partner.”