Since late June, employees of the South American Sun State’s Department of Agriculture have been inspecting the gardens of New Port Richey, a small West Coast town where these snails have made a home.
This mollusk, which can grow up to 20 centimeters long, is “an agricultural pest that feeds on more than 500 different plant species,” explains Jason Stanley, a biologist at that agency. “We are therefore concerned about its presence in our area.”
A single giant African snail can lay up to 2,000 eggs a year, adds Mr. Stanley, an impressive reproductive rate that makes them a threat to the state’s important agricultural sector.
snail hunting dogs
A few yards away, Mellon, a Labrador trained to stalk the snail, is walking with his master. He goes under a tree, searches the grass… and when he finally finds his target, he sits on it.
With the help of Mellon and another tracker dog, 1,200 of this invasive species have already been captured in Pasco County. To combat this destructive snail, authorities are also using metaldehyde, a type of harmless snail killer for humans and animals, the state promises.
New Port Richey has even been quarantined: no plant is allowed to come out to prevent a slug from escaping with it. If the mollusk, which originated in East Africa, made it to Florida, it’s likely because it was brought in as a pet, authorities said.
Its color is light, in contrast to most snails of this species with a tan complexion, a trait that makes them “very popular,” notes Jason Stanley.
Tracking dogs help capture these snails.
CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP
Exterminated twice in Florida
However, this snail can be dangerous for humans. He is a carrier of “rat lungworm, which can cause meningitis,” Jason Stanley continues.
This parasite, found among shellfish caught in Pasco County, enters the lungs of rats when they eat a snail and then spreads through their cough. When a person ingests one of these worms, it travels to the brain, where it can cause meningitis, the biologist explains. The African giant snail has already been eradicated twice, in other parts of Florida, in 1975 and again in 2021.
The last campaign of extermination in Miami-Dade County had taken ten years and $23 million in expenses.