Menu Close

Slowing the snail to a stop

You think snails are annoying in your veggie patch? Land snails are infesting wheat crops, pulses, vineyards and pastures in southern Australia, clogging up machinery and threatening vital grain export markets like Japan.

Though they prefer cool, wet weather, they can stand high temperatures, which means they aren’t just surviving, they’re flourishing.

So far, nothing seems to stop them. Researchers at Charles Sturt University have turned to a tiny native nematode which seems to be particularly efficient at knocking off snails, by giving the creatures blood poisoning.

Read more at Charles Sturt University

Want to write?

Write an article and join a growing community of more than 180,900 academics and researchers from 4,919 institutions.

Register now