Effectiveness of Plant-Based Attractants in Preventing the Escape of Golden Apple Snails (Pomacea canaliculata) into the Ecosystem

Abstract

The effectiveness of plant-based attractants was studied using large traps, which attracted relatively more snails in agricultural water drainage ditches and rice-cultivating environments, although their effectiveness in rice fields and lakes was limited. The rate began to rise after three hours of observation. Watermelon peel exhibited the highest apple snail attraction rate (13.8%), followed by potatoes (10.0%), and apple peel (8.8%). These values significantly differed from the attraction rate attributed to papaya leaves (F=3.84; P=0.0387). After 24 h, water-melon peel and apple peel indicated a higher rate of attraction (23.4% and 21.7%, respectively), which were significantly different compared with those of papaya leaves and potatoes (F=9.94; P=0.00455). Large bait traps out-performed funnel traps in capturing golden apple snails and trapped a significant number of snails measuring over 1 cm in size. Watermelon peel was the most effective at-tractant for a large bait trap, followed by apple peel, potatoes, and papaya leaves. On average, 110 snails were captured in the lure net. However, potatoes, apple peels, and papaya leaves caught an average of 93, 80, and 79 snails, respectively. Among the attractants, the lure effect of the snails was not significantly different. The efficiency of