Field Trials on Land Gastropods Infesting some Ornamental Plants at Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate

Land molluscs became one of the most serious pests attacking many plants including ornamental plants. Occurrence of certain land gastropods associated with some ornamental plants at Kafr EL-Sheikh Governorate was conducted. Results revealed that the land snails, Eobania vermiculata and Succinea putris and the land slug Deroceras reticulatum were recorded on the tested plants. E vermiculata was the predominant species while the other identified gastropods showed lower infestation levels. Therefore ,the seasonal abundance of the predominant snail, E vermiculata was studied and results showed that the population of E vermiculata was increased during spring months (171.99 snails/ ¹/₂ m²) as compared to summer and autumn(149,34 and 59,33),respectively whereas the infestation was the least during winter (40.67 snails/ ¹/₂ m²). Malabar was superior among the tested plants since it attracted the highest number of snails with mean of (5.68 ± 1.56) snails/ ¹/₂ m² followed by Hlibiscus, basil, kockia, DustyMiller, Manitoka and Royal palm, respectively. Both of Pricharida and Duranta were the least attractive to snails. Concerning the efficacy of certain pesticides against E vermiculata under field conditions, Data revealed that Agrinate was more toxic to snails than the other pesticides, since it achieved the highest reduction  percentage of snail population of  (69.03 ± 7.2  ) % followed by Vicarb with reduction of (55.87 ± 6.8)% while Uphold was the least in this respect with reduction percentage of (25.41±2.6)%.