Invasive snail possible threat to area agriculture

Smaller than a dime, slow-moving and short-lived, the eastern heath snail seems unlikely to pose a significant economic risk to Montana agriculture. But multiply its numbers by hundreds of thousands or millions, and the shear mass of the mollusk’s bodies can contaminate fruit and grain crops, gum up harvesting equipment and put livestock off their feed.

On Aug. 9, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that a concentration of eastern heath snails has been identified in the area around Belt. According to Donna Rise from the Montana Department of Agriculture, it’s the first time the snail has been positively identified in North America outside of a small area around Detroit and in Ontario, Canada.