Who knew?
- South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world's most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.
- More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade
- The snails attack "over 500 known species of plants ... pretty much anything that's in their path and green"...
- A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year and the creatures are a particular pest in homes because of their fondness for stucco, devoured for the calcium content they need for their shells.
- The snails also carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis
Read more (gory details) here.
