This approach has been proven devastating in several places around the
world, i.e. Hawaii, Moorea, etc. (usually with Euglandina rosea).  I don't
understand how/why this practice continues.....Kurt


At 10:29 AM 4/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
>During lunch yesterday I picked up a gardening magazine belonging to one of
>my colleagues, and as I flipped through it I came upon a large full color
>picture of a snail.  I figured the attached article was about controlling
>snails that feed on garden plants.  And so it was - only it wasn't exactly
>an article, it was an advertisement - and the pictured snail was not one of
>the species that need to be controlled.  Rather, it was a carnivorous snail
>that was being offered for sale as a means of controlling Helix and other
>molluscan garden pests.  I visited their web site (www.biopest.com).  The
>snail they are selling is Rumina decollata, which they list as "decollate
>predatory snail".  Is this a reasonable approach to controlling snails in
>your garden?  Or could the importation of such a species result in mass
>destruction of the local molluscan fauna?
>Paul M.
>