Amazonian Apple Snail Invasion Monitoring
?>MDEQ Restoration Project Portal Update
March 28, 2022US Supreme Court Narrowly Define Waters of the US in Ruling that Limits Federal Jurisdiction Over Certain Wetlands
May 26, 2023EMS is currently combating the invasive Amazonian Apple Snail in conjunction with State agencies in a coastal river system. The work involves a multitude of control strategies and techniques that include egg mass destruction, hand and trap capture, and tracking/mapping of the location and spread of the destructive mollusks.
EMS uses our experience and resources to combat these types of invaders with scientific approaches that include development of new methods to aid in control, capture, and elimination. State of the art real-time data capture and mapping allows documentation of results and fosters accurate decision-making for deployment of resources. Captured snails are bagged, frozen, and delivered to the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) for inventory and destruction.
Since May of 2021, EMS crews have accomplished substantial control actions as detailed below:
- Over 3,900 apple snails captured by hand
- Almost 25,000 egg masses destroyed (each cluster of eggs can include approximately 600 viable future snails)
- Over 4,200 apples snails captured by trap
- Over an approximate 20-day period recently, EMS crews removed approximately 486 pounds of mature snails from the river system (approximately 24 pounds/calendar day)
The resources we deploy to combat these invasive species include:
- Survey and Management Action Services
- GIS Mapping for Data Collection, Archiving, and Analysis
- Remote sensing of hard to reach or large areas
- An array of equipment including shallow-drive boats, ATVs, standard vessels, traps,
unmanned aerial vehicles with thermal camera, etc.) - Licensed Herbicide Applicators and equipment to control invasive plant species
- A crew of experienced and dedicated staff willing to go where the invasive species proliferate including Biologists, Engineers, and Environmental Technicians
unmanned aerial vehicles with thermal camera, etc.)
