Giant Snails Invade Florida

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."

Comments

Re:what eats them?

[pr0nbot]

The French?

He's gaining on me!

[SomewhatRandom]

Am I the only person that pictured an elderly retiree running from a giant snail in a slow motion chase after reading the title of the article?

Re:what eats them?

[hey!]

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.

Salt the roads?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:what eats them?

[Anonymous Coward]

The French?

But what will we do when the French start to run amuck?!

Why, then we get Germans!

Re:Points at Giant Snails

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Could things be any better, here in the Sunshine state?

They eat stucco.

In just 24 short months, it is possible that South Florida returns to its native habitat.

BONUS: With the new, snail-driven housing scarcity introduced to an otherwise depressed real estate bubble, rewards are again possible for developers and speculators!

Now, mind that sinkhole. We've got a Colombian cocaine submarine to rendezvous with.

Re:On the bright side they are invading very slowl

[DoofusOfDeath]

Your German is perfect! Both in your grammar, and the quality of your joke.

Re:what eats them?

[Anonymous Coward]

Russian winters.

Rename Time

[ThatsNotPudding]

"First spotted in 2011, Giant African Land Snails have migrated to Florida..

Whoever named these things might have missed one of this species' abilities.

Mega Python vs Ultra Snail

[wjcofkc]

At this point I say we just evacuate and wall off Florida for fifty years and then take a peek and see how natural selection works this whole mess out. I'm half serious. I realize FL is home to all of these previously foreign creatures because the creatures themselves fit the environment they have been released into despite being foreign, but they will adapt and spread in response to both fighting for resources and further climate change. Although I suppose 50 foot pythons in the sewers of New York might take care of the rat problem.

Whew! Long time no post!

Can't fight what you don't understand

[ilsaloving]

Before you can do anything, you need to become acquainted with some basics about the land snails.

Conveniently, someone provided an excellent summary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTV23B5gBsQ

That's why you cook them.

[Immerman]

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.