Horticultural trade as vector for snail pests
01-12-2008 16:29
Carl Christensen just draw my attention to a paper by
Robert Cowie et al., on which a popular article
appeared in a
local
newspaper.
Having inventoried 40 horticultural nurseries on different islands in Hawaii, Cowie and his team come to the conclusion that horticultural trade has spread invasive snails and slugs which are potentially serious pests. Many nurseries visited in Hawaii didn’t know that they were infested by snails and slugs - e.g. because they were too small to become readily noticed - and thus inadvertently exported them.
While the article describes the situation found and the conservation issues in Hawaii, one can think of analogous situations in horticulture nurseries elsewhere, not to mention snail nurseries. There will be a paper on the side effects of the latter in the next issue of Tentacle.
Reference:
Cowie, R.H, Hayes, K.A., Tran, C.T. & Meyer, W.M., 2008. The horticultural industry as a vector of alien snails and slugs: widespread invasions in Hawaii. - International Journal of Pest Management 54: 267-276.
Having inventoried 40 horticultural nurseries on different islands in Hawaii, Cowie and his team come to the conclusion that horticultural trade has spread invasive snails and slugs which are potentially serious pests. Many nurseries visited in Hawaii didn’t know that they were infested by snails and slugs - e.g. because they were too small to become readily noticed - and thus inadvertently exported them.
While the article describes the situation found and the conservation issues in Hawaii, one can think of analogous situations in horticulture nurseries elsewhere, not to mention snail nurseries. There will be a paper on the side effects of the latter in the next issue of Tentacle.
Reference:
Cowie, R.H, Hayes, K.A., Tran, C.T. & Meyer, W.M., 2008. The horticultural industry as a vector of alien snails and slugs: widespread invasions in Hawaii. - International Journal of Pest Management 54: 267-276.