Florida battles invasion of giant African snails

South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and chew through stucco (wall finish) and plaster.

More than 1,000 of the molluscs are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida department of agriculture and consumer services.

Residents will soon likely begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state’s rainy season in just seven weeks, Ms Feiber said.

The snails attack “over 500 known species of plants . . . pretty much anything that’s in their path and green”, she said.

In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails’ shells blow out tyres on the highway and turn into hurling projectiles from lawnmower blades.

“It becomes a slick mess,” Ms Feiber said.

A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year and the creatures are a particular pest in homes because of their fondness for stucco, devoured for the calcium content they need for their shells.

The snails also carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Ms Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the US.

Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the molluscs. – (Reuters)