Along irrigation canals and rice paddies across southern and central Japan, in prefectures spanning Kyushu, Shikoku, and parts of Honshu and the Ryukyus, farmers can spot clusters of bright pink eggs clinging to concrete walls and plant stems. They belong to the golden apple snail, known locally as "jumbo tanishi", an unwelcome fixture of Japanese agriculture for more than four decades. Yet the snail was never meant to be a pest at all. It arrived in Japan in 1981 as the centerpiece of a new food business, but the venture collapsed within a few years, leaving established populations of the snail behind and allowing the species to spread into rice-growing areas.
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