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The invasive apple snail Pomacea canaliculata poses a serious threat to duckweed-based agricultural systems due to its intense grazing activity. Despite this risk, there is limited quantitative information on the extent of damage caused by this species and on practical methods to reduce its impact. In this study, we investigated the feeding behavior of P. canaliculata on duckweed and evaluated potential mitigation strategies under controlled laboratory conditions. Snails collected from Haikou, Hainan Province, China, were identified using a combination of morphological characteristics and molecular analyses of mitochondrial COI and 16S rRNA genes, confirming their species identity. A series of feeding experiments was conducted to examine how starvation duration, temperature, duckweed surface density, duckweed species (Spirodela polyrhiza and Lemna aequinoctialis), and snail body weight influenced grazing intensity. The results showed that food consumption increased markedly with longer starvation periods, reached its highest level at moderate temperatures, and was greater when duckweed surface density was low. Snails consumed significantly more L. aequinoctialis than S. polyrhiza, and larger individuals exerted substantially higher grazing pressure than smaller ones. In addition, protective experiments evaluated the effectiveness of different concentrations of nutritional medium (E-Medium), niclosamide, and tea saponin in reducing snail damage. All treatments reduced grazing activity and promoted duckweed biomass in a concentration-dependent manner. However, high concentrations of niclosamide