Marshalls

Pests Left By Japs

Giant Snails in the Marshalls

NEW GUINEA is not alone in having a plague of giant snails.

The Japs left them behind in the Marshalls, too, and now they have in creased a thousand-fold and are doing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage in Rota, Saioan, Tinian, Pon ape, Truk and other islands of the group.

They have now spread, in some way, to Guam, and officials there fear that they may even reach the USA.

They can live for days without food and, as they are bi-sexual, a single snail can start a colony. It is thought that they have been carried unnoticed in packing crates and native canoes from one island to another.

The Japs introduced the snails into the Marshalls for the same reason that they introduced them to New Guinea— as a food supply. When fully matured, they can measure up to eight inches long; and as up to 300 eggs are produced at one time, and the snails mature at four months, the magnitude of the invasion can be imagined.

Coconut Bug

At the same time as the snail plague appeared, the coconut trees on Tinian <and 'Saipan, and some of the smaller islands, have been attacked by a bug which is quickly killing them. American agricultural officers are trying to stop its spread to other islands.