DPIRD warns of egg-laying season for conical snails and black keeled slugs

Conical snails, or small pointed snails, have been observed to be laying eggs within the South Stirlings, Mount Barker, and Wellstead regions.

The snails have been found to be causing crop damage to germinating canola in South Stirlings, resulting in the paddock being baited to protect the crop.

Svetlana Micic, an entomologist at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, said that autumn was the primary season for egg-laying.

“Slugs and snails start to lay eggs when we have more than a 5mm rain event and the weather is a bit cooler, so even if we have summer rainfall, they don’t start to lay eggs,” she said.

“Adult slugs feed off of the germinating crops, so if you really want to control slugs and snails you want to kill them before they lay eggs so that you get less numbers throughout the year.

“You only need one black keeled slug per square metre to cause damage to a germinating canola crop.”

Though both snails and slugs are found widespread throughout the Great Southern region, crop areas suffer particular damage as a result of the pests.

Difficult to tell if this year farmers will encounter a higher than average amount of egg-laying activity from slugs and snails, Ms Micic said that last year experienced a higher than average population of pests.

“Last year was a particularly wet year, and that means for many farmers they weren’t able to get out into the paddocks and spread bait to control the slugs and snails as much as they would have liked,” she said.