Gongju City Moves to Prevent Spread of Wang Woo-reong... Urges Focused Collection Using Intermediate Water Removal

Concerns Over Ecosystem Leakage... Request for Installation of Blocking Nets and Water Channel Management Gongju City (Mayor Choi Won-cheol) has requested active cooperation from farmers for intensive collection activities to prevent the spread of giant apple snails in eco-friendly rice farming areas. The 'giant apple snail' was introduced in 2012 as an eco-friendly weed removal organism, but its strong reproductive and spreading capabilities mean that if management is neglected, it could potentially become a harmful organism to crops. Currently, post-use collection is mandatory, and there are concerns about direct crop damage such as eating rice seedlings if not collected. Particularly, while the giant apple snail originates from the Amazon rainforest and typically cannot survive winter domestically, recent climate warming effects have raised the possibility of winter survival in some regions. Accordingly, Gongju City explained that creating water paths along the edges of rice ...