Control of the number of field slugs Deroceras agreste L. in the plantations of garden strawberry

Abstract

Slugs cause serious harm to nurseries and young plantations of fruit and berry crops in the Krasnodar region. On garden strawberries, the most common species is the field slug Deroceras agreste L., whose larvae damage ripe fruits and leaves, as well as contaminate them with their secretions and mucus, which leads to a decrease in the quality of seedlings and contributes to damage by secondary pests. In modern protection systems, the most commonly used pest control systems are molluscicides containing methaldehyde. The aim of our research was to assess the biological effectiveness of the molluscicides Sliznyakoff, G (60 g/kg methaldehyde) and Slizneed, G (60 g/kg methaldehyde) in controlling the abundance of field slugs in strawberry agrocenoses on the Clery variety. It was found that with an average number of phytophage larvae in the control variant (12.5-16.0 individuals / 10 m2), a single use of molluscicides causes 95.3 % mortality of D. agreste L. on the 7th day.

Nematodes associated with terrestrial gastropod molluscs in Belgium and additional characterisation of Pellioditis californica and P. hermaphrodita

“…Most species are beneficial decomposers, feeding on decaying organic matter and fertilising soil (Barker 2001;Meyer et al 2011). However, some species are adapted to home gardens and cultivated fields, causing substantial damage to quality and yield of many horticultural plants and field crops (Halwart 1994;Joshi 2007; Podgornaya et al 2020;Abd El-Halim et al 2021). Moreover, some species passively transmit spores of plant pathogens such as Sclerotinia trifoliorum, a fungus that infects forage legumes and causes stem rot and mold crown (Shakeel & Mowat 1992).…”