Insects (2021) 12 (4 - 328)

Robin Veasey, Maria Cordoba, Andrew Colton, Leonard Fujimoto, Christine Dodge, Ian Foley, Gary Adams, Taelor Anderson, Richard Merenz, Arnold Hara, Amy Roda, Jocelyn Millar and Rory Mc Donnell (2021)
Fermenting bread dough as a cheap, effective, nontoxic, and generic attractant for pest snails and slugs
Insects 12 (4 - 328)
Abstract: Invasive slugs and snails are among the most damaging pests of agriculture in temperate and tropical regions of the world. Control options, however, are limited and there is a heavy reliance on chemical molluscicides of variable efficacy. There is an ongoing need to improve management methods. Here, we show that a simple fermenting bread dough formulation (flour, water, and yeast) was effective in attracting pest mollusk species in laboratory tests, and in multiple replicated field trials in Hawaii, Oregon, and Montana. The dough attracted substantially more terrestrial pest gastropods, including invasive species of major economic importance such as Cornu aspersum, Deroceras reticulatum, Ambigolimax valentianus, Xerolenta obvia, Lissachatina fulica, and Parmarion martensi, than water controls. The dough remained attractive for at least 8 days and was significantly more attractive than a widely used metaldehyde-based bait, Deadline® M-Ps™. Thus, fermenting bread dough represents a nontoxic, generic, and effective tool to aid in managing pest gastropod infestations, either using baited traps or in attract-and-kill approaches. Given its simplicity, low cost, and the ready availability of its ingredients, the dough also has potential to be used in developing countries where access to commercial molluscicide baits is limited by cost.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
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Database assignments for author(s): Arnold H. Hara, Jocelyn G. Millar

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
pheromones/attractants/traps

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Xerolenta obvia		U.S.A. (NW)
	Cornu aspersum		U.S.A. (NW)
	Deroceras reticulatum	Clover (Trifolium)	U.S.A. (NW)
	Lissachatina fulica		U.S.A. (Hawaii)
	Parmarion martensi		U.S.A. (Hawaii)