Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Snails--what's the big deal?

A lot of people have suggested to me if I have a lot of snails (ours are Japanese trapdoor snails), to stock Red Ear Sunfish or Pumpkinseed to eat them since snails spread disease.

What disease?

That just doesn't make any sense to me--if we are afraid of snails spreading disease, isn't it better to leave them alone than to get fish to eat them?

Regardless of that answer, we use them as bait instead of worms and their meat is more robust on the hook--takes a lot more effort to get the meat off the hook than a worm or minnow.

So can they really be a problem? I'm tending to think they aren't since they've been there for decades and the fish I've caught seem clean and healthy. What am I to be afraid of?