Mollusks

Slug and snail pests are found throughout the world and damage a broad range of agricultural and horticultural crops. In field crops, most damage is done during crop establishment where feeding on either the seeds, or emerging seedlings causes plant death and uneven crop cover. In severe cases, entire crops need to be re-drilled. For fruit and vegetable crops, feeding by mollusks, and associated contamination with feces, can be a problem throughout the cropping cycle. Typically, slugs are controlled with bait-pellets containing toxic active ingredients, but these often fail to give adequate control. In Europe, a nematode parasite, Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita is sold as a biological control for slugs. Cultural controls include ploughing fields, use of barriers around crops and hand-collecting of larger animals. Three of the most important mollusk pests worldwide are the grey field slug, the giant African snail and the golden apple snail.