Snails and Slugs as Crop Pests

Snails and slugs are part of the class of creatures called gastropods. Gastropod comes from the Greek wordsgastros (stomach) and podos (foot). They are the animals without backbones, having asymmetrical, unsegmented and spirally coiled body. When snails have a well-developed shell, slugs have only a rudimentary shell often enclosed in a visceral hump. Snails and slugs are hermaphrodites but there is reciprocal exchange of spermatozoa as they mature before development of eggs. Self-fertilization is prevented. They have good protection against dehydration; hence they avoid direct sunlight and environments with a low relative humidity. They hide during day time in moist places or under debris and feed mainly at night when the temperature drops and humidity rises. Snails secrete light yellow slime and slugs secrete colourless slime which becomes silvery after drying.