Golden apple snails or locally known as Siput Gondang Emas has been infested the rice fields in Malaysia and other countries such as Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. There are two species were found are Pomacea canaliculata (golden) and Pomacea incerlarum (grey-brown with dark spots). The snails are originated from Latin America and have been brought into the country to be raised by the food traders. It is believed to be unsuccessful and discharged to the environment. The invasion started in 1992 at Wan Mat Saman’s irrigation canal in Pangkalan Kundur, Kedah and spreading throughout the north region rapidly threatening not only the agricultural areas, wetlands, natural freshwater systems but also threaten native aquatic vegetation and aquatic fauna, including native snails.
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| The Golden Apple Snails having a sweet moments. |
Life Cycle
The eggs are bright pink and
changes to light pink when nearly hatched. The eggs will be matured between
7-15 days and the hatching process takes for 5 days. The baby snail has soft
shell and will harden within in 2 days. It will start moving after reaching the
size of 5mm. The smaller snails will feed on algae and detritus but as it
getting bigger at the size of 15mm upwards the diet will changed to higher
plants such as paddy. The snails are sexually matured at the age of 75-90 days
and the life span is between 3-5 years.
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| Source : Kupunakalo |
Infestation to the rice
fields
The snails will attacked
the rice plant from its base before proceeding to other parts of the plant.
About 93% of rice yield
will be lost due to the infestation and damages by the snail to the rice
seedlings until 30 days after sowing. Presence of the snails detected when
there were blotches of lost seedlings at the rice field and the eggs. The spreading of the snails
can be controlled by:
- Culture and physical control - The snails and the eggs were destroyed after being gathered from the field. Wood pickets were placed at the field infected for the snail to lay the eggs. In the beginning of the paddy’s growth, weeds at the field need to be cleaned.
- Mechanical control - Net were installed at inlet and outlet of field’s water system to prevent the snails spread.
- Biology control - Rearing ducks (Khaki Campbell and Muscovy) to act as controlling agent which will eat the snails and the eggs.
- Chemical control - Using chemicals pesticides such as niclosamide, saponin or metaldehyde.
PS: More to learn! This is just the beginning and this page will be updated frequently!
References:
http://www.animalspot.net/pomacea-canaliculata.html
http://www.trc.zootechnie.fr/node/200
