Snail Picking 101

Golden Apple Snails 

Snails are tiny little creatures that have a massive appetite for rice seedlings. Upon reading some articles they can finish a whole paddy overnight. If this is true then we should do something to prevent them from chomping on our field. We have no more seedlings that can be replanted for missing hills. :(


Preventive Measure # 1

Drain the field. Upon draining our field we saw large number of snails all over the paddy.

Semi- Drained field with Golden Apple Snail

Some Golden Apple Snails hide in burrows to prevent exposure to severe heat.

Preventive Measure # 2

We opted to use papaya leaves to attract them and divert their attention.

Placing papaya leaves at the edges of the field.

Papaya leaves scattered near the edges.

Papaya leaves all lined up.

Preventive Measure # 3

Do manual snail picking. However, only few appeared that day. Maybe they overheard we were coming to hunt them. :)

Snails devouring the papaya leaf.

 

A snail trapped on a papaya leaf.

Half bucket of picked snails.

Inseparable. Two snails still mating after being picked.

Preventive Measure # 4

We really wanted to stick to the principle of not spraying anything harmful on our field but there was no more choice.We opted for Bayluscide. First spraying was unsuccessful, it washed off because it rained the next day. Second attempt, still  unsuccessful  the solution was applied late in the afternoon, snails were hiding underneath the mud. Third attempt, we were contemplating if we should stop applying but the plants were just 8 days old there is still a week left for the snails to devour our seedlings. 

Ready for Molluscide application.