PestFacts WA

Slugs and snails are still active down south and other insects are eating the baits

• Woogenellup
• Mount Barker
• Gairdner
• Esperance

Small pointed snail feeding on a canola seedling. Photo courtesy of: DAFWA

As part of the GRDC funded national project DAS00160, Biology and management of snails and slugs in grain crops, cameras are being used to monitor slug and snail movement in southern WA.

Cameras located at Mount Barker, Gairdner, Esperance are showing slugs and snails are actively moving and have been for the last four weeks. Placebo baits placed under cameras show snails and slugs are actively feeding. The cameras have also caught beetles and European earwigs feeding on baits. This means that not all baits that have been laid out by growers are being eaten by the intended mollusc pests.

As a part of this project Svetlana Micic (DAFWA entomologist) has undertaken some snail dissections and found that the albumen gland has formed, this means that snails are laying or will be laying eggs shortly.

A black keeled slug (left) and reticulated slug (right). Photo courtesy of: DAFWA

A farmer in the Woogenellup area has also reported that running a line of snail baits across the paddock led to them discovering that slugs were present in that paddock. The paddock has now been baited and germinating canola is being monitored.

For more information on slug and snail management visit DAFWA’s;

• PestFax 2017 Issue 2 Snails and slugs are on the move in the south article
• Identification and control of pest slugs and snails for broadacre crops in WA page
• Snail and slug control page.

For more information contact Svetlana Micic, Research Officer, Albany on +61 (0)8 9892 8591.