GOVERNMENT is launching a pre-dawn blitz on St Andrew's Giant African Snail population on Saturday.

The attack is expected to start around 4 a.m., after residents of the parish, District Emergency Organisation (DEO) members and staff of the Ministry of Agriculture gather at the pasture at Isolation, Belleplaine.

"We are calling on residents of Baxters, Cane Garden, Friendship, Bruce Vale, Lakes, Belleplaine and Coggins to come out in their numbers and assist in the snail eradication programme," snail-hunter David Walrond, who is working with the ministry to get rid of the pest, said yesterday.

"Residents will have the opportunity to collect bait for dispersal around their homes, while the DEO [members] and personnel from the [ministry] bait open fields and the wooded and rugged areas."

Walrond spoke against the backdrop of more sightings of the snails with the start of the heavy rains.

"The snails are coming out in their numbers now," he said. "Some places are swarming with them."

He reported that between 60 and 90 people went to the ministry daily to collect bait to destroy snails on their property.

With public assistance, the Ministry of Health has carried out snail-killing exercises in Sugar Hill and Lammings in St Joseph, Newbury and Fee Hill in St George, Holder's Hill, King's Village, John's Plain and Hoyte's Village in St James and in areas of St Thomas.

A five-member ministry team has been baiting snails across the island, using blowers to disperse pellets.

Walrond said St Andrew would pose some challenges to the project because of the rugged terrain and wooded areas.

Incinerators

The ministry has asked those planning to take part in Saturday's operation to walk with gloves, boots, raincoats, torches and buckets with covers. Incinerators will be on site to destroy the snails collected.

A statement issued through the Government Information Service said the ministry's Entomology Unit was advising the public to expect a proliferation of snails in the rainy season as the pests stopped burying themselves to avoid the heat.

It quoted entomologist Ian Gibbs as saying the ministry was looking to stage the next series of snail hunts in St John. (TY)