It remains near the soil surface until the first hard freeze, then burrows into the soil to hibernate. The snail typically lives on rocky slopes over entrances to caves or cracks where ice is typically permanent underground. The ice helps to maintain the cool, moist conditions that the snail requires for survival. Rich, loose soil and scattered leaf litter also help to conserve moisture. Like most North American snails, the Iowa Pleistocene snail is hermaphroditic, which means that each individual posesses both male and female reproductive organs, but is not self-fertilizing.
All adults can lay eggs and fertilize other snails.
The breeding season runs from March to August. Eggs are laid under logs and bark, in protected moist rock crevices, or just beneath the soil surface. Eggs take about 28 days to hatch. This snail is an ancient creature. Currently, colonies of the snail can be found in Clayton and Dubuque counties in northeastern Iowa.