Apple Snails Continue To Plague Crawfish Ponds

By Don Molino

Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network

Apple snails are becoming more and more of a problem in south Louisiana crawfish ponds. Vermillion Parish Crawfish farmer Ross Herbert says he’s seeing apple snails a lot more across his 1700 acres of ponds.

“Seems like they are attracted to the bait that we’re putting in the cages,” says Herbert. “And they’re such slow movers that they’re gone into the funnels of the cage (and) most of them are blocking the funnels for the crawfish to get inside.”

Herbert goes on to point out the apple snails are also eating the crawfish bait “therefore not having enough bait to allow the crawfish to get in the cage.”

LSU AgCenter Entomologist Dr. Blake Wilson says they’re working on a copper sulfate treatment they’ve found to be effective against the snails.”

“At our southern farm at the rice research station where they have the crawfish labs, we’re going separate experiments examining toxicity and mortality of crawfish with the hope that we can identify a dose that is highly lethal and provide good control of the apple snails with out any negative impact to the crawfish,” said Wilson.

(This Report a service of the Louisiana Crawfish Promotion Board)