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Giant Snails Invade Florida

Posted by samzenpus on from the slow-doom dept.

Edgewood_Dirk writes "First spotted in 2011, Giant African Land Snails have migrated to Florida, and are causing massive agricultural and social problems in the state. Hugely destructive to crops, the creatures themselves are dangerous, in that they are able to gnaw through stucco and plastics, will eat almost any organic material, their shells are hard enough to pop tires on the freeway and become shrapnel when run over by lawnmowers. Over a thousand are caught each week in Miami-Dade County and their numbers are only growing as more come out of hibernation. They also carry a form of rat lungworm which can cause meningitis in humans, although no human cases have been reported yet."

5 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Re:what eats them? by hey! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to Wikipedia *people* eat them:

    However, this snail is an important source of animal protein for West African forest-dwelling ethnic groups, and commercial farming of these snails holds great promise.

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  2. Salt the roads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It sounds like it's time to salt the roads in Florida.

  3. Re:what eats them? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I hear people do in Africa but that's about it. An African guy I used to work with said that when they're cooked the smell is horrific.

    They're really terrible creatures, when crushed they release eggs, their poop is profuse and a lot like epoxy glue, and of course they're quite gross themselves. Any two can reproduce together, they can easily overrun an area.

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  4. That's why you cook them. by Immerman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And pork can carry trichinosis and many other parastes and diseases dangerous to humans. As can beef, chicken, fish, and pretty much any other animal, though the risk tends to reduce as their biochemistry gets progressively more divergent from our own. That's why they tell you to cook meat thoroughly, *especially* things like pork that can carry a lot of infections that can migrate to humans. Also one of the (several) reasons bushmeat is frowned on - almost anything that can survive in a monkey or ape will be right at home in a human.

    Plants are generally safe to eat raw simply because they are *so* biologically different that almost nothing that infects them is likely to be able to jump to humans, so the risks tend to be restricted to poisons produced by either the plant or its parasites, and cooking doesn't help with many of those.

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  5. Re:what eats them? by jc42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Wikipedia article (first link) explains that they have no natural predators, ...

    It wouldn't be surprising if the Everglade kite learns to eat them. This is a local subspecies listed as "endangered", and its favorite food is Florida's largest native snail, the apple snail. If so, this may help the kite survive.

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