Snail, Snail, Go Away!

At last, our research project was done. After all the hard work and efforts in pursuing this study and presenting it last February 2007 in the annual Science Congress, it was pure magic! Magic, in the sense that we were able so say “Phew!” because it was all worth it.

Our study is entitled “The Effects of Rice Hulls on the Leaf Intake of the Golden Apple Snails”. Here’s a brief introduction of our study:

ABSTRACT

Golden Apple Snails (GAS) are freshwater gastropods from South America that has been the staple food in the Philippines and the primary source of income for most of our farmers but has caused insurmountable destruction to rice crops. Due to their exposed soft bodies, they are easily irritated to abrasive materials and one of these things is the rice hull. This study attempted to find the effects of rice hulls on the GAS’ leaf intake.

The pretest – posttest, nonequivalent control group design was used in the study. The independent variable is the rice hull and the dependent variable is the mass of gabi leaves. The initial mass of Gabi leaves was 5 grams. Twenty-four GAS were randomly assigned to four different set-ups that had two GAS in each group and with different amount of rice hulls. There were three experimental groups having 5 grams, 10 grams and 15 grams of rice hulls and a control group. Final measurement on the masses of gabi leaves was made after 12 hours.

The findings showed the mean mass of gabi leaves after exposure to the different amount of rice hulls. Using ANOVA, the study found out that there was a significant difference between the mean mass of gabi leaves after exposure to the rice hulls. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that rice hulls can affect the leaf intake of GAS in terms of the mass of the gabi leaf. The improvement of the GAS management and further research is recommended.


In other words…

Our study entails the usage of rice hulls as a medium of somewhat like a molluscicide, minus the dangerous chemicals. Golden Apple Snails or kuhol (in tagalog) is a major rice and taro pest here in our country, and as well as countries in Asia and South America. The percentage of rice production declines each year, and the emergence of these snails is the culprit. Many methods had been tried in order to retard their population growth, in biological, chemical, cultural, and manual ways. But according to the farmers, none of these methods were actually farmer-and-environment-friendly.

Our target was different. We have to study the anatomy and physiology of the Golden Apple Snail. Then we found out that the snail has its own vulnerability: their delicate skin.
Since mollusks have this characteristic (delicate skin), they are easily irritated by rough surfaces. And when irritation happens, they produce a mucous-like substance to lubricate their skin and to prevent further abrasion. However, when they produce more and more mucous, their system weakens, and may cause their dehydration and death.

Since the kuhols “hate” rough surfaces, we had to find materials which may cause their irritation. And we found out that the rice hull was what we were looking for.

Rice hull is the outer covering of the rice grain. It is a tough and abrasive material made of opaline silica and lignin.

Rice hulls are also one of the biodegradable wastes that accumulate here in the Philippines.

Hence, this study entails the usage of rice hulls as a medium to irritate the snails. Since the snails will be weakened when exposed to these, our dependent variable will be the leaf intake of the snails. In other words, we will measure the amount of gabi leaves left after exposure to rice hull-weakened snails. The more the amount of gabi leaves left, the more effective the rice hull. And the more the rice hull, the more amount of gabi leaves left.