Pesticide to destroy snails; a boon to agriculturists

It was tested successfully at the bio-fuel park at Madenur in Hassan taluk. Basavaraju told Deccan Herald that the pesticide has been formulated using wheat and rice bran, jaggery, water and Methomyl mixture.

Once this mixture is sprayed, the snails die within minutes of consuming. More than 2.5  lakh varieties of plants are grown including Honge and neem at the Bio-fuel park.

Nearly 40 per cent of the plants had been destroyed by the snails. They used to devour hundreds of plants within a night, and it became inevitable to find a solution to the menace.

Scientist B S Basavaraju had already found a formula for destroying these snails, but it is out of reach of the farmers.

A team of scientists comprising Basavaraju, C Chinnamdegowda, Hepparagi, A R V Kumar, K Chandrashekar, Prabhu C Gaanigera, M Marulikrishna, J Jayappa and Mohan Nayaka have tried to find a formula, which is easy to prepare with reasonable prices.

The pesticide was tested at the Bio-fuel park in Madenur on Tuesday and by Wednesday thousands of snails were found dead all over the place.

These snails, which have been identified similar to an African species, are said to be one of the pests that attack plants. They reportedly lay thousands of eggs during its life time, which in turn destroys the crops to a greater extent.

The problem is prevalent in Tamalapura, Halebeedu and Channarayapatna taluks of the district. 

Not only nursery, it was also destroying banana, arecanut and other horticultural crops too, complain the farmers. The new pesticide has come as a boon to the farmers, said Basavaraj.                        

These snails hide behind leaves and other cool places and begin its ‘operation destruction’ after the sunset and it continues up to 2 am, it is observed. The snails are spotted during the rainy season, remain active until the winter season and then take shelter in pits or ditches, says Basavaraju.