Apple Snails

Here in Florida, we have several species of Apple Snails. Unfortunately, only one of these species is native. The Florida Apple Snail (Pomacea paludosa), is a large freshwater snail, and is the preferred prey of the locally endangered Snail Kite.

Both the native and invasive snails in Florida lay clusters of eggs just above the water line, typically on the stems of plants such as Pickerel Weed. However, while native snails lay clusters of up to 80 large white-ish eggs, the Island Apple Snail (Pomacea maculata) lays clusters of tiny pink eggs that can have up to 2000 eggs per cluster.

Invasive Apple Snail Eggs

In addition, these snails also mature faster and grow to be much larger than the native snails, which may make them more difficult for snail kites and other predators to eat. For these reasons, there is worry over the possibility of our native Apple Snails being outcompeted and displaced.

Last week, the other interns and myself, as well as several volunteers, spent three days removing egg clusters and adult snails from a section of the Panther Island Mitigation Bank. Often, we saw as many as 20 egg clusters just on a single plant. And sometimes we'd come back the next day just to see new eggs in an area we'd already cleared. By the end of our three days, we'd removed several hundred adult snails, and several thousand egg clusters, for a probable total of over a million eggs!

It was pretty exhausting work, but it was interesting to see a different side of conservation work. I've got to admit though, I'm pretty happy to go back to just dealing with invasive plants again.

See you next time!
~Amanda