Florida hit by outbreak of Giant Land Snails

 

Experts are warning residents about the danger to health and architecture from increasing numbers of plaster-eating molluscs.



A growing infestation of dangerous giant snails is threatening to damage buildings and spread illness through southern Florida, experts fear.

Giant African Land Snails are being caught at a rate of 1,000 a week in the Miami-Dade county area around the city of Miami with numbers said to be increasing.

The animals, which can grow to the size of a rabbit, are eating through plaster in the walls of buildings as they attempt to consume the huge amounts of calcium they need to grow their shells.

They are also a health risk, being known to carry a type of parasite called the rat lungworm which can infect humans through contaminated water or vegetables.

According to experts, the shells of the snails often grow to a length of 15cm (6ins) with a diameter of 9cm (3.5ins) but some have been known to grow up to 30cm by 15cm (12ins by 6ins).

In Caribbean countries, where the snails have become a major problem, they have even been known to pose a hazard to vehicles by causing blowouts of tyres.

Gardeners have also been injured as the animals have been turned into dangerous projectiles by lawnmowers.

Denise Feiber, from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said action needed to be taken soon or Florida could end up looking like Barbados which has been overrun by the molluscs.
Florida's Department Of Agriculture Warns Of Arrival Of Giant African Land Snails In U.S. Some Snails can grow to the size of a rat

"It becomes a slick mess," Ms Feiber said. "[The snails attack] over 500 known species of plants ... pretty much anything that's in their path and green."

Ms Feiber said about 117,000 have been officially destroyed so far since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011.

She added that the number was expected to grow rapidly because the snails are due to start emerging from underground hibernation at the start of the state's rainy season in just seven weeks.

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, which has a particularly high calcium content.

Rat lungworm can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Ms Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the US.

The snail outbreak is just the latest in a series of invasions by foreign species, including the well-known infestation by giant Burmese pythons, which became established in the Everglades in 2000.

In December, the authorities launched a snake hunting competition in an attempt to keep numbers down.

Many non-native species thrive in the state's moist, subtropical climate.

Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the molluscs, including use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.

Ms Feiber said investigators were trying to trace the snail infestation source.

One possibility being examined is a Miami Santeria group, a religion with West African and Caribbean roots, which was found in 2010 to be using the large snails in its rituals, she said.

But many exotic species come into the US unintentionally in freight or tourists' baggage.

The last known Florida invasion of the giant molluscs occurred in 1966, when a boy returning to Miami from a vacation in Hawaii brought back three of them, possibly in his jacket pockets.

After his grandmother released the snails into her garden, the state had to spend $1m (£650,000) and 10 years eradicating them.