Miami Invaded By Giant, House-Eating Snails

[ashling]

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/17/140540662/miami-invaded-by-giant-house-eating-snails
In southwest Miami, a small subdivision is being called "ground zero" of an invasion by a destructive, non-native species.


That's the Giant African Land Snail, to be precise. They can grow to be 10 inches long. They leave a slimy trail of excrement wherever they go. They harbor the microscopic rat-lung worm, which can transmit meningitis to humans. And they will literally eat your house.
.

***

"Back in 1965 we had an introduction that was traced back to an elementary-aged child that had put two of them in his pocket in Hawaii and brought them back to Miami," Gaskalla says. "Seventeen-thousand snails, a million dollars, and ten years, we eradicated them."

A more recent introduction several years ago was traced to small religious sects in Miami, where the snails are believed to harbor healing properties.

[bluesbassman]

1. Can't be all bad, they apparently shit coins.

Could come in kinda handy what with the recession and all. :P

[TK421]

13. Quick! we need more of these! CALL CONGRESS RIGHT FUCKING NOW!@!

[RedCloud]

14. call them later after WE hoard them all!

[TK421]

17. I need those fucking quarters for the slots!!!@!4

[NightWatcher]

2. Fill your pool full of beer, then when you wake...dead snails

and you know somebody will start serving them out of a food truck.

[KT2000]

10. excellent idea

for less toxic pest management practices!!

[nolabear]

3. Hmmm...wonder how they taste with garlic and butter.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear nolabear...

I suspect it would take a while to purge them of their icky contents!

After that, they might taste much as snails do when they're cooked by the French, or in the French style.

:P

[JCMach1]

7. exactly...

[siligut]

12. You would have to chop them small, to get the right ratio with garlic and butter

Plus, if they are anything like their smaller cousins, they would be really chewy, you need small bites to enjoy them. And I didn't know you had to purge them as Peggy says, but it makes sense.

[dimbear]

5. traced to small religious sects in Miami

a splinter group of the Hardshelled Baptists, the Spiral Hardshelled Baptists.

[JCMach1]

6. Make lemonade--- err escargots

[tblue]

8. The French must be licking their chops.

Export them, could help our economy.

[petronius]

9. On the bright side, once the snails have eaten all the houses and died of starvation,

Floridians can take up residence in the discarded empty shells. Unless, of course, the snails get a taste for Floridians after they've eaten all the houses... :scared:

[nadine_mn]

11. I have several phobias - not unlike Monk ... clowns, puppets, roaches

now I have to add house eating snails

ewww

[TK421]

25. I know what you mean!

[nadine_mn]

30. you are so evil wahhh

:scared:



:cry:

[NV Whino]

15. Call in the pythons!

Seriously, can we just whack florida off the continent and let it float away. It's becoming a real menace what with hanging chads, wacko politicians, pythons and giant snails.

[Shagbark Hickory]

16. Just what Floreeduh needs, more exotic pests that shit everywhere.

[TK421]

18. I can only think of two things I enjoyed watching while I lived in that hellhole

the lizards clinging everywhere to the outdoor patio screens ( they called them chameleons, but I don't think they are really chameleons ) and watching the manatee swim up the canal right outside my apartment ( shortly followed by the babies..several light-brown splotches in the water behind the large light-brown splotch ). Everything else? fuck it

[Shagbark Hickory]

21. The frogs were the most bothersome to me IMO.

In one part of the state I lived, they had a real bad problem with cuban tree frogs.
They would shit in the most unwanted places such as door knobs anything outside that you valued. They would wait right outside the door and the second you open the door, they would go inside the house. Horrible!

Another invasive that wasn't in my immediate area but I thought they were kinda gross were the giant marine toads. They would take over areas much like the little cuban tree frogs but these secret a toxin that can poison pets and native wildlife.

[TK421]

22. I might have seen those, it's been a long time since I went back

I wish my sister would move back home..I don't know what she sees down there

Certain areas of Western P.A are plagued by the little frogs; no, on a camping trip those weren't crickets that were chirping and they never got THAT loud. Spiders freak me out, though

[Shagbark Hickory]

23. cuban tree frogs

These are what the cuban tree frogs look like. They're about the size of a dollar coin. I don't believe they can survive outside of floreeduh or at least they haven't become a problem that I'm aware of. They're native to the carribean.

The big difference between these frogs and native frogs that we have in GA and PA (the ones that make a lot of racket) is that the cuban tree frog scales up and down walls and leaps onto your car, into your house. There'll be like 10 of them waiting on your front porch and the second you open the door, they leap inside. The shit all over the outside of the house, on the windows, on the cars.

When I lived there I would go out with a stick and squash them- every one I could find. They were easy to kill because they'd just sit there and you could whack it with a 2x4. In one evening you could go whack 50 of them around the outside of the house until you don't see any more then the next night they'll be back with a vengeance.

There wasn't anything that exterminators could do about them.

[TK421]

24. that is pretty nasty! so, they're kind of like an uninvited guest that just shows

up and shits all over the place, like Nick Noltes character in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills"

classic movie

[Shagbark Hickory]

26. That would be an understatement. n/t

[RebelOne]

28. Hellhole is right. I have always called South Florida that.

Glad I don't live there any more.

[LynneSin]

19. Is that a Giant African land Snail in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Giant African Land Snails are restricted in the US. Gaskalla says people often smuggle them into the country in their pockets, because they make popular novelty pets.

[KG]

20. escargot? super-size me!

[Blue_Tires]

27. KILL it with fire, please

Why has Florida (and for that matter, a lot of states) not learned the lessons of invasive species yet?

[Blue_Tires]

29. Actually, I realized the truth could be more disturbing:

Futurama keeps trying to tell us the future, but we.do.not.heed!