So you thought you had a snail problem?

[Inchworm]

We all know what can happen when there are a few snails and lots of food for them to eat, but look at the problem these folks have:

http/www.fao.org/NEWS/1998/980410-e.htm

Even ducks couldn't get rid of them!

 

[Synirr]

Oh man, that's terrible!! And I thought my trumpet snail army was bad!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

...And some people pay to have these things as pets, im sure most people over there would pay to get rid of them.
I suppose its the same sort of story in so many other countrys, i once heard of some rivers in africa infested with koi karp who were eating away the river banks which were causing them to dry up, locals were killing giant koi karp that most of us over here would pay hundreds of pounds for .

 

[Ben]

wow, thats terrible,
They should get a massive school of clown loaches

DD

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Don't some types of pufferfish eat large snails as well? i bet they would think they were having a lifetime feast there !

 

[Inchworm]

The problem starts when you mess with nature. By adding something to eat the snails, they will then have a population explosion of that creature and have to deal with it in turn.

These people walk around in there barefoot too! Ewwww!

 

[CFC]

Just ship over a few metric tonnes of garlic and few hundred french people and the snail problem will be no more.

 

[tekknocolor]

It's a third world country... some people can't afford shoes. It was like that last time I was there.

What's worse? People that can't afford shoes and walk around barefoot through places like that or people that can afford shoes and walk around a Wal-Mart parking lot without them?

 

[Fella]

Just ship over a few metric tonnes of garlic and few hundred french people and the snail problem will be no more.

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[Tokis-Phoenix]

The problem starts when you mess with nature. By adding something to eat the snails, they will then have a population explosion of that creature and have to deal with it in turn.

These people walk around in there barefoot too! Ewwww!

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I don't think you'd want to wear shoes in a rice paddy as they'd get very wet and muddy, i wouldn't be suprised if they have leachs there too and those can get in your shoes- wouldn't want to take off my shoes only to find i've walked home a family of squishy leachs .
I wouldn't be suprised if the snails are edible though, even the common garden snail was introduced over here in england by the romans as food, they could be a wasting a valuable food source who knows.

 

[RandomWiktor]

I wonder what imbalance in the ecosystem caused this to begin with. You don't usually have random, out of control population growth unless something that used to regulate has been elminated from the environment...

 

[GuppyDude]

why not just introduce some kind of giant loach population? when they eat all of teh snails they die off, so niether species is left standing

 

[Fella]

why not just introduce some kind of giant loach population? when they eat all of teh snails they die off, so niether species is left standing

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It's not very ethical to kill a whole bundle of loaches though really...

 

[SirMinion]

I wonder what imbalance in the ecosystem caused this to begin with. You don't usually have random, out of control population growth unless something that used to regulate has been elminated from the environment...

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The snails are not native to Vietnam, they're South American so their natural population control predator is not there hence the population explosion.

Just like the cane toads in Australia that were introduced to eat sugarcane grubs.
They turned out to eat just about evey native Australian creature including several species of marsupial mouse but they won't eat the cane grubs.
Anything that tries to eat them dies from their venom.
The toads are now spreading across Australia wiping out the local fauna as they go by systematically eating or poisoning everything in their path.

why not just introduce some kind of giant loach population? when they eat all of teh snails they die off, so niether species is left standing

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Loaches eat more than just snails, so when the snails are all gone, the loaches would turn their attention to the local food sources and become a pest themselves.

It takes thousands of years for a newly introduced species to fit into a niche and obtain balance, usually at the expense of a native species.

When the Romans introduced rabbits from north Africa into Europe & Britain three thousand years ago they all but wiped out the local hare species and changed the face of the countryside by preventing the regrowth of forests by keeping moorland scub open with their browsing, but now the rabbit population is stable.

 

[Fella]

I wonder what imbalance in the ecosystem caused this to begin with. You don't usually have random, out of control population growth unless something that used to regulate has been elminated from the environment...

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The snails are not native to Vietnam, they're South American so their natural population control predator is not there hence the population explosion.

Just like the cane toads in Australia that were introduced to eat sugarcane grubs.
They turned out to eat just about evey native Australian creature including several species of marsupial mouse but they won't eat the cane grubs.
Anything that tries to eat them dies from their venom.
The toads are now spreading across Australia wiping out the local fauna as they go by systematically eating or poisoning everything in their path.

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And in accordance with that, what about the nile perch? That's the cause of the number of species of cichlids found in lake victoria is now 100 and not 300...