Snail selling side-business in Big Sandy a success

Big Sandy resident Vanessa Janssen recently stumbled onto a somewhat unusual idea for a side-business recently: selling snails as pets.

"My parents still make fun of me. Apparently I'm a Montana snail rancher ... it's pretty hardcore," Janssen said jokingly.

She said the business originated when her mother ordered a few adult snails for Janssen's children.

She said her children are home-schooled and she's always looking for new ways to entertain them, but when the snails laid a clutch of eggs she didn't know what to do with them.

"I kinda panicked," she said. "I mean what am I supposed to do with a whole bunch of snails?"

Janssen said the 150 eggs hatched and she started selling them this past January, and they have been very popular despite her own expectations.

"I'd get five or six orders every day," she said. "Honestly it was really weird. Like, who wants pet snails? ... I thought for sure no one was going to buy them."

She's sold snails to people in 27 states so far and is curious to see how high that number can get.

"My mom keeps saying, 'Hey you're already at 27 states. You should at least shoot for 48,'" she said.

Janssen said she's not really interested in the money, though the money she's made has been a nice side-effect, instead she wonders how far she can take this little business.

"I kinda wanna see how far I can go," she said.

She said she's continuing the business for herself and that keeping track of where the snails are going is very fun.

Despite the fact that snails can reproduce very quickly, demand seems to be keeping up with supply as orders continue coming in, some from Canada.

While the Pacific Northwest hasn't seen much business, Janssen said, she's seen a lot of orders from California and Wisconsin.

She said many of these orders have been by people looking for gifts for their own kids or even spouses.

Since her business took off Janssen said she's realized that her fascination with the animals has outpaced that of her children.

"Admittedly, I think I'm more into snails than they are, which I did not see coming," she said "But they enjoy looking at them."

Janssen said watching the animals is oddly entertaining and, considering how little space and attention they require, they can make for fun pets, especially during the pandemic which has kept so many at home.

One of the first to purchase the unconventional pets was Amanda Hoffman, a close friend of Janssen and one of her few local customers so far.

Hoffman said the animals were unexpectedly fun to watch and she was happy to be one of the first to get them as pets.

"I'm really good friends with Vanessa and we would just go over there and watch them," she said. "... They're just cool."

In the time since she got them, she said, they've been growing like crazy, and have proven fun, low-maintenance pets that she would recommend to anyone, unusual as they may be.

"Everybody at work thinks I'm crazy," she said.

Hoffman said Janssen's business taking off has been very great to see, and her own profession gives her an interesting vantage point.

"It has been an adventure for both of us," she said. "I work at the post office in Havre so it's fun to watch them and the different place they go."

While Janssen's motivations mostly lie in the fun of selling the animals, part of the reason her prices are so competitive, the money she's made is nice.

"I've made $700 in sales, which was $700 more than I thought I was going to make," she said. "... my husband has pointed out the $700 in two months isn't really livable profit, but it paid for the cute glass terrarium for the snails and our 20th anniversary is coming up and I'm going to pay for the trip with it."

She said her mother has also joked about the possibility of opening a salon, snail slime being a popular skin care product. But she said that might be getting a little too weird for her tastes.

"I don't think there's a real big market for that," she said.