[NatureList] Re: Snails perforating Opuntia

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

Last year Clay Shearer carelessly took a course in Cactus biology, and
he's now working with the Thousand Islands Park on the native Opuntia in
the park, and documenting places where these Prickly-pears can be found.

This included planting a couple on our land, and across the street on
Kevin Willey's land, and beginning last fall we began to notice that
chunks were missing from the new pads on the plants.

At first we thought that Deer or Rabbits were tolerating prickly
mouthfuls, but then our introduced Cepaea snails were suspiciously close
to the wounded Cacti, and I had a wikipedia moment by googling up the
frantic concerns of a myriad of cactus-keepers that various genera of
snails and slugs were chewing through their plants.

>> On Jun 29, 2024, at 10:31 PM, Frederick W. Schueler <bck...@istar.ca> wrote:
>>
>> ...Aleta has taken a photo of two mature Cepaea chewing at the holes on the new pads of the O. cespitosa behind the trailer. There is a huge number of snails there from feeding on the Buckthorn foliage from the clearing we did last year.

fred.
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[rmb...@istar.ca]

I'm finding geranium oil to be an effective organic deterrent for
various insects and slugs, I'm wondering if that would work on the
cacti? I put about 8 drops of geranium essential oil in a few ounces
of water in a spray bottle and spray it on my beans and flowers. I
also use it as a repellant on myself to ward off ticks. I was
crawling through grass at the KFN bio blitz and at Depot Creek, not a
single tick on me.

If he's looking for a place to plant some cacti I have 170 acres.
I've heard that some of these cacti grow near Westport, I'm only 28 km
south of there.

Rose-Marie

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[V. Kirkwood]

One introduced species eating another introduces species -- sounds like poetic justice to me.

Valerie

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Visit my fine art photography page at http://valerie-kirkwood.fineartamerica.com/

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 02-Jul-24 9:17 a.m., 'V. Kirkwood' via NatureList wrote:
> One introduced species eating another introduces species -- sounds like poetic justice to me.

* well, that goes for the Cepaea eating Cathartic Buckthorn, but the
Opuntia Cacti are scattered natives in Ontario, so our concern is what
might happen if there are big Cepaea populations where there are Opuntia
colonies.

fred.
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