Who would have thought that a snail could sow discord to the point of quarantining an American municipality? Yet that is what happened in late June in Pasco County. Giant African snails are gluttonous specimens.
On June 23, a gardener reported the presence of the gastropod north of Tampa, Florida in the United States. The growing population of snails caused the quarantine of part of the town of New Port Richey, 2 days later, according to the newspaper LeFigaro.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) launched an investigation to determine the number of people in the county. The authorities acted quickly: “Immediately, a chemical eradication operation was launched with metaldehyde pesticides to treat the soil.” This, of course, without considering the danger for other endangered insects such as bees.
The impressive growth of the giant West African land snail Archachatina
Via https://t.co/o6l4JFA4ou pic.twitter.com/02LN3ZOvvW— Taupo (@pierrekerner) January 2, 2021
This operation will have to last 3 years to ensure that all tracers are eliminated, something overwhelmingly catastrophic for the environment. This desperate solution is because the mollusk can produce up to 2,500 eggs a year.
This animal can be a threat to agricultural crops. This species of snail, native to East Africa, is “one of the hundred most invasive species on the planet,” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
As the name suggests, the giant snail is a large specimen: up to 20 cm long and 18 cm in diameter when fully grown. And he eats a lot and very, very varied: can feed on at least 500 different types of plants. Enough to devastate crops, gardens and natural areas.
And not only! Because if the soil lacks calcium for its shell, the giant African snail does not hesitate to feed… on houses! And more particularly stucco and paint.
Giant African Land Snail pic.twitter.com/toL0aDm8jd
— Curiosity (@Sciencenature14) July 18, 2022
Beyond the material damage, this mollusk is dangerous for our health. The animal itself is not, but it does carry a “parasite called rat lungworm,” which can transmit meningitis to humans, according to FDACS director of public information, Christina Chitty.
Hence the need for quarantine and the ban on touching the snail without gloves. There have been 2 invasions of giant African snails in Florida: the first in 1969 when a boy brought 3 gastropods to his grandmother from Hawaii, according to FDACS. Then it took 10 years to stop the animal invasion.
The last invasion dates back to 2011. This time in Miami-Dade County. The state of Florida had to pay $24 million for eradication and had treated the soil, there too, for 10 years.