[Creative Cultivation Program] Snails run slowly, but they are not slow at all in “damaging” crops!

Author: Chatting and opening your mind

Review: Huang Chengming

Snails are common animals. After the rain, you can often see their footprints in dark and humid places such as farmland and vegetable leaves. "The snail carries a heavy shell and climbs up step by step." It has two pairs of small tentacles on its head, looks clumsy, and carries a heavy shell. It moves very slowly. The snail has a keen sense of touch. Once its body is touched, it will immediately retract into its shell. The cute appearance of the little snail makes it a toy in the eyes of many children. Little do people know that snails are actually agricultural pests, and many crops such as vegetables, corn, fruit trees, and flowers are deeply harmed by them.

The harm of snails

Snails are the animals with the most teeth in the world. Although their mouths are about the size of a needle tip, they have more than 26,000 teeth. There is a small hole a little below the middle of the snail's tentacles. This is its mouth, and inside is a serrated tongue, which scientists call the "radora". Despite having tens of thousands of teeth, they cannot chew food. The surface of the radora is like a file for grating ginger, with some small keratinous teeth neatly arranged. When snails eat, they use this "small file" to grind the leaves of plants and then eat them bit by bit.

Snails have a very diverse diet. Young snails mainly feed on decaying plants, while adults mainly feed on green plants. They harm the stems, leaves, and fruits of various plants, especially young leaves and juicy vegetables. In mild cases, holes are formed, reducing the value of the product. In severe cases, seedlings will die and ridges will be broken.

Why do snails come out after it rains?

Snails are molluscs belonging to the class Gastropoda. They like a moist and humid living environment, so in winter, snails mostly hibernate in vegetable fields, plant roots, under grass piles and stones, and in soil cracks. In April and May of the following year, adult snails begin to mate and lay eggs and harm crops. Because snails need to secrete a large amount of mucus with a high water content in their daily activities to wriggle their bodies and keep their bodies moist. So when they encounter bad weather such as high temperature and drought in summer, they hide in the relatively cool wall roots, tree roots or grass, shrink their bodies into the shells to hibernate, and seal the opening of the shells with mucus. Once it rains, the ground becomes wet, and rainwater pours into the shells, soaking the mucus at the opening of the shells. It will awaken the dormant snails, because this is also the weather that is most conducive to snail activities. So there will be a phenomenon of snails appearing in groups after the rain.

In addition, snails like to hide during the day and come out at night. They are most afraid of direct sunlight and usually come out to feed after 6 o'clock in the evening, with the peak feeding time being 8-11 o'clock.

Snail control

Snails are most active from June to September, and their activity starts to decrease in late October. A series of comprehensive measures are usually taken to control snails, focusing on reducing their numbers. After the rain is a good time to control snails. After the rain, snails come out in large numbers to feed. At this time, you can spread metaldehyde granules. Metaldehyde is a pesticide with moderate toxicity to humans and animals. It has a strong stomach poisoning effect on snails. Since plants do not absorb metaldehyde, the agent will not accumulate in the plant body. When using metaldehyde to control snails, choose weather around 25°C. Too high a temperature will affect the snail's feeding, and the amount of food taken is not enough to kill it.

Secondly, controlling soil moisture plays a key role in preventing and controlling snails. There was more rain in the first half of the year, especially in areas with high groundwater levels. Ditches should be dug in time to remove stagnant water and reduce soil moisture. After the summer crops or vegetables are harvested, weeds in the field should be removed in time to reduce humidity, reduce the hiding places for snails, and destroy the environment for snail growth and reproduction.

Spreading quicklime is also an effective way to prevent and control snails. You can spread lime beside ditches, on the edge of the field or between crops. For fruit trees, you can spread a circle of quicklime under the tree. When snails come out to feed at night, they will lose water and die when they touch the quicklime. This method must be done when the green land is dry, which can kill some adult snails or larvae. We can also release some chickens and ducks to feed on adult snails when no pesticides are used in the field; and insist on catching snails on the soil surface and green leaves before sunrise or on cloudy days when snails are active, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort in killing snails.

This article is produced by the Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program. Please indicate the source when reprinting