By Clint Thompson
Snails are already impacting citrus in Florida. Georgia vegetables experts are concerned their crops could be next.
Stormy Sparks, University of Georgia (UGA) Cooperative Extension vegetable entomologist, talked about the dangers that snails pose to all vegetable crops in South Georgia.
“It’s a growing concern, absolutely,” Sparks said. “We’ve got some in the squash fields over in Colquitt County, and it’s a different species. It’s not the invasive species they’ve been dealing with in Florida. Florida’s got a number of invasive snail species, apparently, but this is a relatively new one, and we’ve picked it up in Georgia.
“It’s a big problem in citrus down (in Florida); primarily, because it clogs up emitters. It messes with irrigation systems. I don’t think they’re a huge concern as far as damage but absolutely, if you’ve got them in a crop, if you’re harvesting greens and you’ve got snails on the foliage, that’s not going to be a good thing.”
Snails prefer decaying organic matter and could serve as a potential contaminant on any crop it feeds on.
“When you harvest, you don’t want snails in your greens when they go to the grocery store,” Sparks said.
Sparks added that snails are covered with mucus which makes it difficult to manage through insecticides.
Sparks is researching bioassays, which are being collected in squash. His colleague, Phillip Roberts, a fellow UGA entomologist on the UGA Tifton Campus, is researching snails in cotton.