They look almost decorative: a cluster of tiny, bright pink beads stuck to a plant stem, a fence post or the edge of a pond, the color of bubble gum. Plenty of people photograph them. Some kids poke them. Wildlife agencies across the South would rather you did something else entirely, and quickly. Those pink eggs are one of the clearest warning signs a garden can show, and what hatches from them is one of the most invasive animals in the world.
The eggs belong to apple snails, large freshwater snails native to South America. They have become a serious problem in several U.S. states, and the eggs are usually the first sign that they’ve arrived.
What the pink eggs are
Apple snails are among the largest freshwater snails there are, with shells often 2 to 4 inches tall and large ones reaching 6 inches. They were first documented in Florida in the 1980s and now have established wild populations in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, with others reported in Hawaii and California.
The snails live in water, but they climb out to lay their eggs just above the waterline, on stumps, stems, walls and pilings. A single bright pink cluster can contain hundreds to more than a thousand eggs, and a female can lay a new cluster every week or two. Most populations are thought to come from aquarium snails released into the wild.
Why wildlife officials want them destroyed
Apple snails eat aquatic plants in huge quantities, stripping the habitat native fish and wildlife depend on, and in Texas, Louisiana and Florida they’re considered a pest of rice crops. No pesticide can target them without harming everything else in the water, which is why removing the eggs by hand is one of the few effective tools.
There’s a health side, too. The eggs contain a neurotoxin that can irritate skin and eyes, and the snails can carry rat lungworm, a parasite that can cause a serious form of meningitis in people who eat them raw or eat contaminated produce.
What to do if you find them
Act quickly, but carefully:
- Put on gloves, and ideally eye protection, before touching anything.
- Scrape the egg mass off with a stick or tool and crush it, or knock it into the water. Submerged eggs drown and can’t hatch, which is the method the LSU AgCenter recommends.
- If you can’t reach them, a strong spray from the hose that knocks them into the water works too.
- Wash your hands thoroughly afterward.
- Report the sighting to your state’s fish and wildlife or agriculture agency, especially if you’ve never seen them in your area before.
Never move the snails or their eggs to another pond, and never release aquarium snails outdoors. In warm-climate states they stay active well into the fall, so a garden pond or drainage ditch is worth a look this month.
Apple snails aren’t the only invader gardeners are being asked to watch for this season; the stink bugs on the windowsill arrived the same way.
Pretty to look at, bad news for the pond. Gloves on, scrape them into the water, and report what you found. That’s the trick.
