Posted on 04/15/2013 6:20:45 AM PDT by Red Badger
South Florida residents are being warned to be on the lookout for one of the world's most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat.
The huge mollusks were first spotted in Florida in 2011, and their numbers are growing, Reuters reports. More than 1,000 are being caught each week in Miami-Dade County and more will continue to emerge from hibernation in the coming weeks.
The snails can gnaw through stucco and plastic, and attack "over 500 known species of plants ... pretty much anything that's in their path and green," Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told Reuters.
In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails' shells blow out tires on the highway and turn into hurling projectiles from lawnmower blades, while their slime and excrement coat walls and pavement.
"It becomes a slick mess," 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, Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the United States.
Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the mollusks, including use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Escargo!! Quick, call in the Emergency Response Team fom the Food Channel and have Guy Fieri report it all.
Marx was German, Ingalls was British, Lenin and Stalin were Russian, and Mao was Chinese. Africa does not hold a monopoly but they do have some bad stuff there. I worked in Nigeria for two years. It is a hell hole.
The heck with garlic butter!!
Go to your local hardware store, obtain a big flat-face hammer, paint it orange, and use only that hammer wearing workgloves since there is a health hazard, to smack the heck out of these things!!! They can’t make more of themselves when they are squished!
Or, get a 5 gallon bucket with a top .... fill it a little more than half full with water, and add in two small boxes of kosher salt. Knock the snails into the bucket, until there is a possiblility of sloshing the water out of the bucket. Snails and salt do not mix. empty the bucket in the appropriate sidewalk drain.
Albatross!!
I was speaking of the non-homosapien variety, but point taken.
Little bit of garlic, some butter and maybe cilantro, problem solved.
Oh and a nice cold bottle of Merryvale Starmont Chardonnay...
Burp!!!
I swear thas a guy with a wig and breast pads.
I swear thats a guy with a wig and breast pads.
ROTFLAMO!!!!
ROTFLMAO x 2!!!!
Sell them to the French.
Gonna need a bigger hammer.........
Oh no!!
You’re a terrible person!
LOL
Good catch. What an unfortunate moppet.
Escargot anyone?
First off, It takes a lot more radiation to kill microorganisms than it does to kill people, so zapping with 70,000 rad might be enough, but 700 won't do it. Second, I don't have a handy 5 mev xray machine or a couple of curies of co60 in my pocket to zap them with. Third why bother? Just poison them with snail bait. Like I said before anyone else can have my share.
Well up here, they sell the baby eels to the Asians for around $2000 a pound. I'll bet the Thais or Japs would like them.
Forget the cilantro......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.