BY DON B. JAMISON DBJ Contributing Writer

Allen Holdeman, owner of Holdeman & Sons of Indianola, has been in business in the Delta for 35 years. Recently, however, he has expanded his business of dirt work to include a new service: snail control.
According to James Steeby, an area extension agent for aquaculture with the National Warm Water Aquaculture Center, snails are one component of a serious problem. “What’s come up in the last couple of years is a particular parasite that is attacking our catfish. The common name would be trematode of catfish,” says Steeby. “This parasite is brought in by white pelicans, but it has a life cycle going through the snail. The snails are a host to the parasite. The snails in turn infect our fish which causes small fish mortality and, in larger fish, makes them feel so poor that they have no appetite so we’re not getting growth there. By eliminating the snails in the pond we can pretty well keep the parasite off of our fish.”
That’s where Holdeman’s new service comes in. “After this problem with the parasite developed, they found out that by putting liquid lime in the fish ponds we would kill the snails and that interrupts the life cycle of this parasite,” says Holdeman.
This new venture, operating under the name The Snail Nailer, has been a valuable service to some area catfish farmers. And it has kept Holdeman busy. “Last year we sprayed somewhere around 12 to 14,000 acres. That’s quite a few,” says Holdeman. “What you do is apply the lime to a strip about three or four feet wide right around the edge of the pond. This is because that’s were the snails gather up. I’ve got a 1600 gallon tank on the trailer and use a little tractor. We have a pump and we just go around with a spray rig applicator.”
While this service is an innovative addition to the family business, Holdeman sees it as simply another day’s work. “I just accidentally happened onto this,” says Holdeman. “The farmers were having this parasite problem and were researching how to deal with it. I saw that this was just another service we could offer. All we do is try to offer a needed service to the farmer and here was another service that we could add to our business.” DBJ