News Releases

News Releases

Slugs & Snails Symposium Attracts Speakers from Around the World

7 July 2003

Most people with a garden have experienced the devastation wreaked by slugs and snails. These molluscs are now causing increasing havoc to world agriculture and with new farm practices the situation is likely to get worse in future.

To address the various issues relating to these pests BCPC has joined with The Malacological Society of London in organising a two-day Symposium ‘Slugs & Snails – Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Perspectives’. This event, to be held on 8 to 9 September 2003 at Canterbury Christ Church University College, Canterbury, Kent, UK, will integrate current knowledge in malacology and will consider future developments.

Slugs and snails are particularly invasive and are ruining the biodiversity in certain crucial areas of the world,” explained the Symposium programme committee chairman Prof Georges Dussart of the Ecology Research Group, Canterbury Christ Church University College. “Snails are also causing problems underwater. Freshwater snails for example, spread disease to hundreds of millions of people and animals in the tropics and this will substantially increase as a result of major engineering projects. In the UK they cause untold damage to water utilities including sewage works.”

“This Symposium examines current issues in the monitoring and control of slug and snail populations,” said Prof Dussart. “It aims to highlight the present and incipient problems and to point at possible solutions. Speakers from Spain, Zimbabwe, Germany, Switzerland, France, Australia and the UK, who are all authorities in this particular field, will share their findings and provide us with an interesting forum for discussion. We hope that this event will attract as much interest as the previous Symposia held in 1989 and 1996”.

The Symposium programme will include sessions on the physiology and function of slugs and snails along with prospects for their control. Knowledge of the behaviour and ecology of molluscs is essential in understanding factors that influence their presence and abundance and this will be investigated. The Integrated Pest Management session will focus on novel approaches to mollusc pest management and how these can be integrated with other measures to minimise pest damage. A wide-ranging series of posters covering all aspects linked to the Symposium will be available for viewing for the duration of the event.

The registration fee for this two-day Symposium is £350 before 31 July 2003 and £410 after 31 July, with reduced rates available for bona fide students*. Delegates registering not only benefit from attendance at all sessions, access to the poster session and a copy of the Symposium Proceedings, but will also get en-suite accommodation at the venue for the night of 8 September 2003 plus all meals including the Symposium dinner. Registrations can be made now on-line.

Details about the Symposium are available here on the BCPC website. For further information and a copy of the final Programme contact the Symposium Secretariat: Chris Todd, BCPE, 7 Omni Business Centre, Omega Park, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2QD, UK. Tel:+44(0)1420 593 200, Fax: +44(0)1420 593 209. Email: md@bcpc.org.