The wild rice, Zizania latifoliaTurcz, used to be one of the important aquatic vegetables cultivated in China. Recently, the golden apple snail - GAS (Pomacea canaliculata(Lamarck))
was found to be a major invasive pest attacking Z. latifolia. To control efficiently GAS, predation
by the Chinese soft-shelled turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis) on GAS was evaluated in laboratory and
field trials. P. sinensishad a strong predatory capacity and selectivity for GAS both in laboratory
and field conditions. All the sizes of P. sinensisprefer to capture smaller snails. The optimum
number of P. sinensisreleased in Z. latifoliafield was dependent on the density of over-wintered
GAS, and varied between 30 and 50 turtles per 666.7 m
2
. The number of GAS declined in the
fields with turtles as compared to turtle-free field. A pattern of releasing P. sinensisin Z. latifolia
fields was developed and widely adopted by farmers because of much more benefit besides
biologically controlling GAS.
Keywords: invasive pest, predatory capacity, turtles, snails