57 



Section 5. Determination of the Snail Feeding Potential 

 Introduction 



Quantitatively speaking, no literature was found on the feeding 

 potential of the snail. Occasionally sooty mold was mentioned as a 

 food source but no other mention of the quality and quantity of inges- 

 ted materials is available. The first part of this study was directed 

 at quantifying the citrus tree snail's ability to clean given areas of 

 citrus. The second part extrapolates this rate to encompass the en- 

 tire citrus canopy. 

 Materials and Methods 



Specimens for this study were collected at Leesburg, Florida. Due 

 to the severity of the winter only a very small population was located. 

 Twelve citrus tree snails collected were transported in glass mason 

 jars with a relative humidity of 98% - 1% to Orange Lake, Florida, where 

 observations were made on Valencia orange. 



A suitable tree with both citrus rust mite and sooty mold was 

 located. Nine, one cubic foot areas of peripheral leaves from two feet 

 to six feet off the ground were created by use of hedge shears and a one 

 foot carpenter's square. The shears were used to isolate an area of one 

 cubic foot on the tree. 



Once the cubic unit was formed, all leaves from adjacent branches 

 were removed, leaving a six to eight inch leafless barrier around each 

 unit. 



A standard 18 mesh metal screen 2" x 4" was wrapped about the stems 

 of the branches included in the cubic unit, to restrict the snails to 

 this area and to keep any other snails from entering. The snails 

 were unable to traverse the screen due to loss of contact with the 



