Mineral oil as a repellent in comparison with other control methods for citrus brown snail, Caucasotachea lencoranea

The efficacy of mineral oil and snail copper repellent tape for the control of the citrus brown snail Caucasotachea lencoranea Musson were compared with chemical bait molluscides, iron phosphate and methaldehyde ̧ in a commercial citrus orchard in Northern Iran. The number of snails on citrus trees was monitored 10 days after the application of treatments at an interval of 9 to 10 day up to harvest time. Analysis of variance among the treatments in the first experiment showed that there were significant differences between treatments and control. The mineral oil and copper barrier with 17.27 and 26.66% of the counted snail on trees respectively were more effective rather than methaldehyde and iron phosphate with 47.39 and 52.2%, correspondingly. In a second experiment, the average population of snails on 300 trees treated with mineral oil and methaldehyde were 3.05 and 9.12 snails, respectively. On the contrary, this number in control plants was approximately 15.5 snails per each tree. Analysis of data by dunett T3 test shows significance difference between the treatments. The control efficacies of the mineral oil and methaldehyde were 80.34 and 41.2%, respectively, 60 days post treatments. Results were discussed in terms of a sustainable, integrated pest management system.