Giant African land snails threaten people because they sometimes carry rat lungworm, a parasite known to cause meningitis, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.Īnyone who touches slugs or snails should use gloves and wash their hands. He reportedly encouraged them to drink the snails' mucus. Investigators believed that outbreak began when a religious leader and his followers smuggled snails into the United States. The work cost about $24 million, officials said. Removing them entailed destroying more than 168,000 snails and countless eggs, according to the federal agriculture agency. The snails were found again in Miami-Dade County in 2011, according to the state, and were only declared eradicated last year. Getting rid of them cost $1 million and took several years. Giant African land snails spread around South Florida in the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to the U.S. Land snails are suitable pets for elementary-school-age kids, who can learn from watching snails crawl, eat, grow and breed. They can also lay more than 1,000 eggs in a year. But if they can't find enough vegetation, the federal agency says, giant African land snails will eat paint or stucco off a house. They eat many plants, including peas, beans and cucumbers. The snails can grow to be about the size of a fist, according to the U.S. The agency said it would start putting snail bait on properties within about 600 feet of where the snail was spotted. The snail was found in the New Port Richey area. The state last week confirmed the sighting. Any attempt to move the snails after a sighting is also illegal without proper documentation.The giant African land snail gobbles up plants and can carry a parasite known to give people meningitis, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Owning and importing giant African land snails without a permit is against the law in the U.S. Although they are not native inhabitants of the state, officials have traced infestations dating back to the 1960s to escaped house pets and illegal importations by religious groups, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Giant African land snails have wreaked havoc on parts of Florida before. People are advised to wear protective gear, like gloves, when handling them. They also present serious health risks to humans, as the snails carry a parasite called rat lungworm that can cause meningitis. The snails are mobile - experts warn that they "cling to vehicles and machinery," plus trash, to "move long distances" - and resilient, with the capacity to survive for a year while "inactive" and buried in soil to shield itself from unfavorable weather. Credit: KERRY SHERIDAN/AFP/Getty Images ![]() Scientist Mary Yong Cong holds one of the Giant African Snails she keeps in her lab in Miami, Florida, on July 17, 2015. At four months old, a single snail can lay thousands of eggs at a time and each can grow to be 8 inches long as an adult. ![]() Its unusually large size and ability to procreate in vast quantities allows the creature to infiltrate surrounding areas quickly, posing threats to vegetation and infrastructure because of its appetite for at least 500 different plants as well as paint and stucco. Discover and log the Land Snails and Slugs of the New England area (Pulmonates and Gastropods). The control unit started to treat the land with baited pesticide on Tuesday.įlorida's agriculture department has called the giant African snail "one of the most damaging" mollusk subtypes in the world. A division of Florida's department of agriculture that manages pest control began to survey the region for additional snail sightings once the quarantine mandate was in place, according to the agency. By the early ‘70’s, there were 18,000 African snails in the area and it took 10 years to eradicate them. In 1966, a (very fertile) African Land snail was smuggled back to Miami and set outside to be a garden snail. The reappearance of an invasive snail species forced state officials to enact a quarantine order last week for residents of Florida's Pasco County, an area north of Tampa along the gulf coast.Īuthorities took action after confirming that a notoriously destructive breed of mollusk, known as the giant African land snail, was identified by a community gardener in the city of Port Richey. A popular (and highly illegal) pet species is the African Land Snail (Ghana Tiger Snail), which may grow to be a foot long. Another giant African snail sighting forces Florida county into quarantine
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