A MECHANICAL METHOD FOR CONTROLLING LAND SNAILS ON PEAR TREES IN EGYPT.

The aim of the present study is to protect the orchard trees from land snails by using a band of metal around the tree trunk. The rings tested were in the shape of a corona and were made of copper sheet, aluminium sheet, wire screen gauze (14 mesh) and a fibre cord (Rope). This study was conducted in a severely infested pear orchard lo­cated at Alexandria governorate. The land snails found in this orchard were Eobania vermiculata (Muller), Helicella vestalis (Pfeiffer), Theba pi­sana (Muller) and Cochlicella acuta (Muller). The results revealed that wire screen rings gave the highest per­centage of protection against the different snails followed by the copper sheet rings. Aluminium sheet rings gave intermediate protection, while the rope rings gave poor protection.