Rather than a situation involving a population's collective memory, might it be possible that the snails stay off the front of the glass due to some sort of chemical "communication?" For example, honey bees and pillbugs have alarm pheromones: isopentyl acetate and hydrogen cyanide, repsectively. In the case of honeybees, the pheromone causes nestmates to swarm the source of the chemical, a behavior used for protection of the hive. In the case of pillbugs, I forget what it does but I think it's more along the lines of a defense mechanism (cause, you know, cyanide...). Anyways, what if by smashing the snail, it releases a chemical that after a given amount of time smashing a given amount of snails, adheres to the glass surface, repelling other snails?
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