AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PALABILITY OF CERTAIN PLANTS FOR THE WHITE GARDEN SNAIL, Theba pisana (MÜLLER)

The land snails caused significant problems for a large number of economic plants grown in Egypt. The goal of this study was to measure the palatability and consumption ratio of snails for twelve plants from eight botanical families using a single method of no-choice feeding. Data from the no-choice feeding experiment showed that slices of cucumber, zucchini, and lettuce leaves were the most palatable food for the white garden snail; T. pisana. The average consumption weight were 3.90±0.32 g, 2.38±0.27 g, and 2.23±0.15 g for these treated plants, respectively. On the other hand, moderate average consumption was observed for plants such as cabbage, carrot, sowthistle, and watercress with weights of 1.94±0.36 g, 1.80±0.36 g, 1.59±0.08 g, and 1.53±0.03 g, respectively. However, spinach, beetroot, and welsh onion plants had low average consumption weights of 0.80±0.02 g, 0.80±0.01 g, and 0.68±0.06 g, respectively, over six-day. Therefore, it recommended using the most appealing plants to attract terrestrial mollusks in the field as part of their mechanical control approach.