Florida

Invasion of giant African land snails puts Florida on offensive

Published

2 years ago

July 9, 2022

Invasion of giant African land snails puts Florida on offensive

July 8 (Reuters) – A whole bunch of large African land snails have turned up on Florida’s Gulf Coast, officers stated on Friday, threatening to destroy an unlimited array of vegetation and bushes, and posing the danger of transmitting a uncommon sort of meningitis to people.

The snail, native to East Africa, is among the most damaging on the earth, consuming at the least 500 several types of vegetation, tree bark, and even paint and stucco on homes, the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s web site stated.

The gastropod, whose shell can develop to the scale of a human fist, usually carries a parasite often known as rat lungworm that may transmit a kind of meningitis whose signs embody muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, fever and vomiting.

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Greater than a thousand of the creatures have been collected within the Tampa suburb of New Port Richey in Pasco County, officers stated. All of these examined as of Thursday weren’t carrying the rat lungworm parasite, Greg Hodges, assistant director of the state’s Division of Plant Business, stated at a briefing.

State officers first detected the infestation on June 23.

Officers burdened the significance of not touching nor ingesting the snail to forestall infections.

“Most significantly, do no eat them. This isn’t a snail to be placed on butter and oil and garlic. This isn’t one thing you need to contact. This isn’t one thing you need to eat,” Florida Division of Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried stated.

To eradicate the snails, the state has positioned an space of the county round New Port Richey underneath watch and can deal with all properties throughout the zone till the snails are eradicated, the division’s web site stated.

The remedy with metaldehyde, a pesticide used to regulate snails and slugs, will take 18 months, and the world will monitored for 2 years after the final snail discover.

It’s unclear how the snail made its strategy to Florida, however the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s web site stated is a typical hitchhiker on cargo or illegally imported by folks for the aim of meals or as pets.

It’s the third time that the large African land snail has been present in Florida. Within the Nineteen Sixties, it took $1 million and 10 years to eradicate. In 2010, a second infestation took one other decade and $23 million to eradicate.

If the snails flip up past a core focus within the New Port Richey space, it might take longer than anticipated to eradicate the pest, state officers stated.

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Reporting by Randi Love in New York;
Modifying by Sandra Maler

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.

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Florida

This website is unavailable in your location. – Action News Jax

Published

2 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Press Room

This website is unavailable in your location. – Action News Jax

Revised figures for 2023 indicate that Florida welcomed over 140.6 million visitors, surpassing previous records. Additionally, the first quarter of 2024 saw 40.6 million visitors, the highest number ever recorded for a single quarter.

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Florida

Florida mother Destiny Byassee killed when fake airbags ‘detonated like a grenade,’ lawsuit alleges

Published

9 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Press Room

Florida mother Destiny Byassee killed when fake airbags ‘detonated like a grenade,’ lawsuit alleges

A young Florida mother was killed last year when her car’s counterfeit airbag “detonated like a grenade,” according to a lawsuit.

Destiny Byassee’s used 2020 Chevy Malibu passed through multiple conmen before its fake emergency airbags deployed in a June frontal collision, causing a blast that “shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout” the car, her family alleges.

“Several fragments from the blast struck Ms. Byassee in the face, head, and neck, ultimately killing her,” stated the complaint, obtained by Law & Crime.

The 22-year-old “was a mother of two young children and had her entire life ahead of her,” attorney John Morgan, who is also representing the family, said in a news release.

According to the lawsuit, Byassee bought the doomed sedan from DriveTime, a national used car company, without being given a full history of the car.

The former Enterprise Rent-A-Car car was involved in a devastating September 2022 crash that caused damage that “was so significant that the vehicle should have been classified as a total loss, issued a salvage title, and removed from service,” the lawsuit alleges.

Rather than scrap the vehicle, Enterprise allegedly sold the car to DriveTime through Manheim Auctions, Inc., which bills itself as the largest wholesale automobile auction company in the world.

It was then repaired at Jumbo Automotive in Hollywood, Florida, the complaint continues, claiming that shop owner Haim Levy “purchased counterfeit and non-compliant airbag components” by a Chinese company to replace the Chevrolet factory airbag “and proceeded to install these components into the subject Chevy Malibu.”

Not only were the dangerous fake bags used, but Levy allegedly repaired the deployed seatbelt pretensioner — the part of a complete system that tightens the belt during a crash — incorrectly, but in a cunning way that made it appear to work properly.

Byassee “had no idea that the vehicle had been improperly and illegally repaired,” her family said.

Both the counterfeit airbag and faulty seatbelt pretensioner “were signaled to deploy” during the June 2023 collision, according to the lawsuit.

“However, because the subject Chevy Malibu’s front driver-side seatbelt pretensioner was inoperable, the pretensioner did not deploy as originally designed,” the lawsuit states. “Worse, because the subject Chevy Malibu’s front driver-side airbag system included counterfeit and non-compliant components, the airbag detonated like a grenade and shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout the vehicle cabin.”

The filing pointedly said that photographs depicted the “horrifying event,” including one of the “shredded and blood-soaked front driver-side airbag.”

Cathy King, Byassee’s grandmother, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 6- and 4-year-old children the young woman left behind, as well as her husband and mother.

Byassee “believed she was buying a safe and reliable vehicle, but our lawsuit alleges that several automotive companies worked to skirt the system by repairing what should’ve been a totaled vehicle, all just to make money,” Morgan said in the release.

“Because of that, Ms. Byassee lost her life, and her children will grow up without their mother.”

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial on 14 various counts against the various defendants – including strict liability, negligence and deceptive trade practices.

Neither Enterprise, Manheim, DriveTime nor Jumbo Automotive immediately answered The Post’s request for comment.

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Florida

Don Moreland inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Hall of Fame

Published

16 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Press Room

Don Moreland inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Hall of Fame

OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) – A former Marion County Sheriff was inducted into the Florida Law Enforcement Hall of Fame today.

Former sheriff Don Moreland got emotional giving his acceptance speech, more than fifty years after he was elected.

He was Marion County Sheriff for twenty years, from 1972 to 1992.

Once he left his post, former President Bill Clinton made him the Marshall for the Middle District of Florida.

“I am deeply honored being included in this whole thing. When you get to be 90 you really sincerely appreciate everything a little bit more,” said Don Moreland.

Moreland still holds the record for the ‘longest-serving sheriff’ in Marion County.

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