Giant snails and tiny insects threaten the South's rice and crawfish farms
Associated Press
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Josh Courville replaces a crawfish trap while harvesting Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Water fills crawfish ponds, back, next to rice fields Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Tyler Musgrove, a rice extension specialist with Louisiana State University, uses a net to catch insects in a rice field Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at a farm in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Rice delphacid specimens, invasive insects, sit under a microscope Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at a laboratory in Rayne, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Apple snails sit in tanks as part of an experiment testing concentrations of copper sulfate used to kill the snails Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)A crawfish crawls through apple snails after harvest Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at a farm in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Apple snail eggs stick to a plant Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Blake Wilson, an entomologist at Louisiana State University, inspects a baby apple snail Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at a crawfish farm in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Blake Wilson, an entomologist at Louisiana State University walks into a crawfish pond while looking for apple snails Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)A cluster of apple snail eggs, with some that have hatched, sticks to a plant Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)An apple snail sits in a drainage ditch Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, near a crawfish pond in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Birds fly overhead as a crawfish boat moves through a pond while harvesting Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Cecilia Gallegos tosses out used bait while harvesting crawfish Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at a farm in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
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Josh Courville replaces a crawfish trap while harvesting Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)