Location: Tropical Crop and Commodity Protection Research
Project Number: 2040-30400-001-001-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Feb 1, 2026
End Date: Jan 31, 2027
Objective:
Overall goal is to develop new quarantine treatment options for control of Giant African snails specifically and invasive snails generally.
Objective 1: Establish a giant African snail colony in Hilo, HI that can be used for fumigant efficacy trials.
Objective 2: Determine fumigant efficacy for different life stages of giant African snail in HI to the fumigants, sulfuryl fluoride, ethyl formate and methyl bromide.
Objective 3: Determine fumigant efficacy for additional snail species to sulfuryl fluoride and ethyl formate.
Objective 4: Develop prospective quarantine treatment protocols and perform confirmatory testing. (leading to second year of funding)
Approach:
The proposed research aims to develop ethyl formate (EF) and sulfuryl fluoride (SF) fumigation treatments for giant African and other invasive snails that are often hitchhiking pests in imported and exported durable commodities and ornamental plants. EF and SF are methyl bromide alternative fumigants with a good efficacy toward many types of pests. EF is generally recognized as safe and breaks down rapidly to ethanol and formic acid without residue. SF has been widely used to disinfest structural pests such as termite. Our preliminary data showed that juveniles of giant African snail, which has been invading Florida multiple times and established in Hawaii, could be effectively controlled using a 4-hr fumigation at relatively low dose EF treatment. SF has not been tested for the disinfestation of snails. Proposed approaches to achieve the objective are to: (1) establish a colony of giant African snail in Hawaii, (2) determine EF and SF efficacy for the most tolerant life stages of giant African snail, including aestivating snails, (3) compare the efficacy of EF/SF treatments with the efficacy of methyl bromide, (4) evaluate treatment EF and SF treatment efficacy on other invasive snails as a basis for developing general treatment for mollusks, and (4) conduct confirmatory large scale fumigation trials.