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What is the Integrated Snail Project?
The problem in SA
- Snails cause feeding damage to seedlings, particularly canola and barley and legume based pastures
- Snails climb onto heads and stalks of cereal crops which leads to contamination at harvest time
- Delays at harvest, damage to equipment and downgrading at receival
- Serious threat to SA’s grain export markets
Expected project outcomes
- Novel cultural, chemical, biological and rotational options developed and evaluated
- Parasite for conical snail established and its impact assessed optimal baiting strategies developed
- Harvest machinery adaptations documented
- Best practices for snail management developed and extended to farmers
In Australia four species of introduced snails are pests of grain crops and pastures in the Southern Region. These can be divided into two distinct groups: round or white snails and conical or pointed snails. The four snail species shown below are contaminants of grain.
White snails | |
|
Common white snail |
White Italian snail |
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Open, circular umbilicus |
Partly closed, semi-circular umbilicus |
Conical snails | |
|
Pointed snail |
Small pointed snail |
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Ratio of length : diameter >2 |
Ratio of length : diameter = 2 or less |
