Invasive Apple Snails Threaten Louisiana Rice, Crawfish Production
By Blake Wilson, Julian Lucero and Mark Shirley
LSU AgCenter/RiceFarming
Invasive apple snails — sometimes called giant, golden or channeled apple snails — are native to South America but have been introduced into many regions. Several species of apple snails are invasive pests in many parts of Europe, Asia, and North and South America. But the species that has been introduced along the U.S. Gulf Coast is Pomacea maculata.
The snails have been in Louisiana for more than 10 years and have been the focus of ecological research because of their consumption of vast quantities of subaquatic vegetation, eliminating habitat for fish and aquatic invertebrates. Apple snails are not picky eaters. They consume many types of living and decaying vegetation in addition to protein sources such as the eggs of frogs and other amphibians.