African Giant snail problem

I have a few solutions for that
Use wet gunny bags and papaya leaves as bait to collect and destroy them. Marigold can be raised as trap crop around vegetable fields. Lime or bleaching powder may be sprinkled in the infested area. Common salt may also be spread on the snail infested area.
Spread the bait mixture of rice bran and metaldehyde (5 per cent) to cover the paths of snails or sprinkle 5 per cent metaldehyde pellets around the infested plants.
Or try freezing them to death
or attract more birds that eat these snails.

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I dont think garlic will help

Yes my friend,I do totally agree with what you said
But if this Snail starts to breed its gonna be difficult to handle the situation
Suppose they start to breed,you need to take their eggs and freeze them immidetly.
To control the population of the snail with no other predator around it is to kill the snail,but when we try killing any animal we feel sad/bad for it
For your problem we have 2 solutions

  1. Kill it and stop its breeding
  2. Collect them in Gunny bags and leave them in a far off forest area

well I think I completely eliminated them I see noone in my area

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why would you dump invasive snails in the forest?

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yeah, I totally agree with you as my objective is to eliminate them so they cannot harm the surrounding or native species, and the problem will get worse if we dump them in forest.

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merging topic here

I had Giant African snail on my terrace and I was successful before to eliminate them and prevent them from spreading in my area and now I am left with the snail shells, So I thought I could use it in making some art and when I sit wondering about what art should I make from them, I got a foolish idea of collecting the Giant african snails from my area(there are lots in parks) kill them with salt and then dry them and use there shells to make art and sell them, but then I thought I am doing something wrong, I feel I am doing something wrong but I canā€™t tell? can you help me out here

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It sounds like a great idea to me! Thereā€™s no problem with you making shell art and no problem with killing invasive snails.

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yeah I think so, but problem I think is the people who will try to copy me, there are many instances where I rear butterflies to find out and learn about them, but my small brother who always tries to copy me start saving all of the caterpillars which in long term can affect ecosystem, which is not cool and also I taught him a lesson about ecosystems and all, but I cannot explain to all, I donā€™t want to create a mess which endangers native snails as well

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I wouldnā€™t use salt to kill them. Itā€™s not known if snails can feel pain, and if they can, salt is probably a pretty nasty way to die. These snails canā€™t survive freezing, can they? I would put them in a container and put that container in the freezer.

Killing the snails is good, period. Thereā€™s no need to do anything with the shells. You could collect the snails at the park and then simply dump the shells into your yard.

Or you could sell art made from them, and put a disclaimer with the art that says this is from an invasive species.

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I agree!

Salt is a very nasty way, especially for housed snails. The most ā€œhumaneā€ way would probably crushing them, but that would not go well with your plan of using the shells.

Other than that, once introduced and established the best way to deal with invasives is to learn to live with them and try to learn from those mistakes. ItĀ“s a noble but utopian thought trying to erraticate them by hand. ItĀ“wonĀ“t work. LotĀ“s and lots of people arround the world trying to accomplish something like that - even with a lot of more ressources than you as a single person have - show that. ItĀ“s a battle that cannot be won and you collecting some snails in your neighbourhood wonĀ“t do a lot.
So you can for sure collect and do something with them, if it feels right for you. But the argument to help out nature in your area by doing so is not very sound and should not be the reasoning behind this.

Ways of killing them were discussed in a previous topics though, including freezing and crushing.

I disagree on your point about it not being helpful. It sounds like African Land Snails are just starting to invade their area, if thatā€™s the case then killing them will go a long way. Even if that isnā€™t the case, killing them is better for the environment than letting them live. Period.

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Which area? They are already widespread in South America and Asia and reading about +50 individuals in just one backyard does not sound like ā€œjust beginningā€.
I am extremely sceptical when it comes to trying to make good on mistakes leading to invasionsā€¦ history shows that it often does not help a lot or even is making things worseā€¦

How can killing easily distinguished invasive snails by one person can make it worse? If people start confusing it with another species or if it was a plant and itā€™d e dug out with ground, itā€™s easy to see how, but just killing those snails canā€™t make things worse for environment.

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That is not what I said in this specific case, I just donĀ“t think it will a remarkable difference and I am not really in favour of these kinds of - in my opinion - useless killing incentives, even if it is about introduced species. ( ItĀ“s something else if it is done with a sustainable, thought-through planā€¦ I am not per se against erratication projects as they at times worked out on some island habitats with a lot of willpower, time and endurance)

However, as I also pointed out thats a call each person has to make for themselfsā€¦ but just be aware that it quite probably wonĀ“t change a thing, so I donĀ“t think the reasoning to ā€œkill an neozoon to help natureā€ should be the argumentation behind it. If you want to collect and kill the snails to have a canvas for art - well I guess you could and nobody woud really care.

And btw: Just because you can distinguish them easily does not mean everybody can. For example, when around the 2000s the news made round that an invasive ladybug invaded Germany, I recall that many people went for trying to kill ladybugs and I was for sure not the only person trying to educated people that not every ladybug is bad ā€¦ and btwā€¦ Harmonia axyridis is now well established despite all the effords.
And also Lissachatina fulica seems to be very recognizable due to the size and this might be true for some regions of the world, it is not for all. For example in Colombia I ran into quite impressive large snails that could easily be mistaken for the Giant African, if you are not wo well into Gastropods

e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74196281
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61488349
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13380247

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Thatā€™s what I fear the most!!!

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But who says about everybody? Itā€™s a one man project, not a world collaboration, Colombian fauna canā€™t affect it. Just donā€™t make anything out of those shells and thatā€™s all, people wonā€™t care about gathering of snails.