- GOLDEN snail is now the biggest enemy of farmers after other pests because it regularly attacks at the beginning of the growing season
- Herding ducks in the rice fields can be a cheap and sustainable alternative to eradicate these golden snails
Farming in modern times is getting more and more difficult because there are more and more problems faced by farmers. In addition to the problem of fertilizer prices which are expensive and tend to continuously rise, there is also additional pest disturbance.
One pest that is sure to bother farmers at the start of every rice planting season is the golden snail. Although farmers have tried hard to overcome it by picking and spraying the golden snails with pesticides, this obstacle seems never ending.
In addition, the purchase price of a special pesticide for these snails is also quite expensive and it is not enough to spray it just once.
Alternative
There may be plant-based pesticides used to eradicate the golden snail. But because farmers couldn’t make it, they still had to buy it. This means that farmers still have to pay extra to deal with this one pest, apart from other pests.
If farmers are careless now, the newly planted rice plants can be sold out overnight. You can imagine how much loss the farmers will have to bear if this happens. They also have to replant.
Herding ducks
Well, reflecting on past experience, it turns out that the snails are also consumed by ducks like the rice field snails in the past. However, the snail used to have no problem because it did not eat rice plants. It also happens that this golden snail is also popular with ducks.
Many farmers then use their ducks to savor the golden snails, the predators of these young rice plants. On the one hand, farmers find it helpful in overcoming a terrible attack from the golden snail population with a fast and large reproductive period. That means, farmers need less pesticide of anti-golden snail.
Then, on the other hand, farmers can also get additional benefits in the form of duck eggs because when the adult ducks get enough food, they will lay eggs regularly. Maybe keeping and grazing 10-15 ducks in rice fields with a land area of about 50-100 square meters is enough.
