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.

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.

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

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.