Toxicity of methomyl, copper hydroxide and urea fertilizer on some land snails

Abstract

Terrestrial gastropods have become important economic pests attacking various vegetations in Egypt. According to this study, the molluscicidal activity of methomyl, urea, and copper hydroxide against the brown garden snail Eobania vermiculata and the small white garden snail, Theba pisana was investigated.The obtained results indicated that copper hydroxide was the most toxic compound against E. vermiculata followed by methomyl and urea after 72h of evaluation where LC50 values were 3.31%, 3.75% and 40.88%, respectively. Methomyl was also the most toxic compound when it was tested against T. pisana followed by copper hydroxide followed by urea. The LC50 values were 3.76%, 4.63% and 40.13%, with respect. The brown garden snail was more susceptible to copper hydroxide and methomyl than the second one. There was no difference in the susceptibility of the two tested snails to urea. The toxicity of the compounds was enhanced as increasing the exposure time. This study showed that the land snails may be controlled using urea fertilizer at concentration of 8%, to give % mortality in a range of (67–100)%.