JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An invasive giant African snail that already had to be exterminated twice in the past 50 years in Florida is back and one county is on high alert.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) confirmed that giant African land snails were found in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County on June 23, according to the FDACS website.
A quarantine was issued on June 25, preventing residents from moving the snail or related items, such as plants and soil, into or out of the designated quarantine area. Residents who think they have spotted a giant African land snail are asked to call the FDACS hotline and avoid touching the snail without gloves due to the risk of meningitis.
Snails pose a serious risk to human health because they carry the rat lungworm parasite, which is known to cause meningitis in humans.
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Giant African land snails, which can reach eight inches in length, are illegal to import or possess in the United States without a permit. FDACS said the population in Pasco County likely originated in the illegal pet trade.
Last week, the FDACS Division of Plant Industry began surveying the area, quarantined it, and will begin treatment for the pest. FDACS said it will treat the properties with metaldehyde-based molluscicide (snail bait). FDACS said it plans to spend three years eradicating the population in Pasco County using the pesticide metaldehyde as a soil treatment.
The snails can produce up to 2,500 eggs a year, so the population is difficult to control, officials said.
This isn’t the first time Florida has dealt with an invasion of giant snails, CNN reported. In 2011, a pest population was discovered in Miami-Dade County. It wasn’t until 2021 that the population was completely wiped out.
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The first discovery in Florida was in 1969 and it was destroyed in 1975.
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