EVALUATION OF PLANT EXTRACTS FOR ANTIFEEDANT ACTIVITY AGAINST GAINT AFRICAN SNAIL, Achatina fulica Bowdich

Abstract

The gaint African snail, Achatina fiulica  Bowdich (Gastropoda ; Achatinidae) causes  considerable harm to several horticultural crops  especially during rainy season (Srivastava and  Abbas, 1983). It damages commercial ornamental  crops viz., orchids, gerbera, chrysanthemum,  china aster, marigold, etc., by feeding on growing  buds, flowers and cutting of young plants.  Management of snails has become difficult  because of the limited approaches available for  control. Use of metaldehyde 5% pellets (Sharma  and Agarwal, 1989), collection and destruction of  the pest during aestivation, removal of hiding  places and sprinkling of common salt (Shah,  1992) are the methods presently practiced to  combat this pest problem. Information available  regarding the effect of plant products against  snails is very meagre