Ladies and gentlemen, I'm putting out a call for action here on a new invasive species in central Virginia. Last October I found a local pond to be infested with Chinese mystery snails, which are a species of Asian aquatic snail that gets up to about three inches long. These things reproduce very quickly and will be serious trouble if left to their own devices.The pond is on property owned by Monticello. I met with a representative from Monticello who was open to letting someone do something about the situation but wanted to hear from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries before letting me or anyone else have access to the pond to eradicate them.
I got in touch with the district biologist from DGIF, who in turn referred me to a DGIF aquatic specialist with an office here in Albemarle County. That gentleman asked me to bring him a sample so I gathered up a number of live snails, dropped them into sample jars full of alcohol and dropped them off at his office.
Then absolutely nothing happened. My emails were not responded to. I spoke on the phone to a game warden a few weeks ago to see what was going on but never heard anything back.
I have information suggesting that a particular person probably dumped an unwanted aquarium into that pond, leading to the infestation.
Meanwhile I've found another population of the snails. Like the first location this is in water close to a road and handy for illicit aquarium dumping. The spillway and creek beneath Totier Creek Reservoir near Scottsville, Virginia is loaded with these snails. I've been making trips out there and rounding them up personally but more needs to be done.
I have given up on getting DGIF or any other government agency to do anything about this problem. The Totier Creek spillway empties into the James River only a few miles downstream. Time is running out to prevent this infestation from reaching the James and causing untold ecological damage.
The pond at Monticello is at these coordinates. The Totier Creek population is right here. Want to help the environment? Drive to one of these locations with a bucket and start picking up snails. Apparently nobody else is going to do it.
Yes, you can eat them. Keep them in a bucket of water for 12 hours or so, flushing it out and replacing the water a few times to end up with nice, clean, poopless snails. Then boil some water and drop the whole snails in for about three minutes. Then it will be simple to pull the meat out of the shells using tweezers or needle nose pliers. At that point you can do all sorts of things with them. They'd probably good in a nice alfredo sauce. Substitute them for clams in chowder or sauce. I pan-seared them in garlic, butter and onions and ate them on crackers.
Even if you don't want to eat snails, please go kill these things anyway. Gather them up in a bucket and then kill them one way or another. Just don't dump them out any where near water.
We're all concerned about the threat of invasive species and the danger that they often pose to the survival of native wildlife. This concern should not be abstract. Stop waiting for government agencies to do something. Stop waiting for federal grants and studies. If you see an invasive species that is causing a problem then take personal responsibility for it and take action. Here's your opportunity.
[Photo copyright 2011 by Jackson Landers. All rights reserved. Ask for permission and I'll probably let you use it.]
0 comments:
Post a Comment