Holes in leaves and damaged leaf edges are immediately visible forms of damage that can interfere with the development of the plant and render it unsaleable. Slug damage to seedlings can lead to the loss of the entire crop, resulting in the need for further seeding or reseeding.
In Asia, directly drilled rice reacts very sensitively to infestation with apple snails, and this regularly leads to substantial losses in the Philippines and Japan.
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Deterioration in quality due to feeding marks
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On fresh vegetables, cut flowers and fruits, even slight feeding marks or traces of mucus and fecal residues can mean rejection of the product. The producer suffers a substantial loss of income as a result. Comprehensive protection against slugs is vital for these crops.
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Australia
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Introduced snails are causing major problems in Australia. In meadows they often damage leguminous plant stocks. In wheat fields, the pests climb on to the maturing ears to spend the summer. If densities are high, combine harvesters can become blocked up with slugs. In vineyards, the same species can also accumulate on the grapes, leading to substantial deteriorations in quality.
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Subterranean damage
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Slugs often cause damage in the soil that goes unnoticed. Such damage regularly affects winter wheat and potatoes. Slugs penetrate germinating wheat seedlings while they are underground and start eating the nutritious endosperm (reserve material) of the seed. While feeding damage to the seed tuber presents only a minor threat to potatoes, the holes that slugs gnaw into young vegetables are extremely unpleasant and can lead to processing industries rejecting complete crop batches for quality reasons.
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