Giant African Land Snail Invasion Causes FL Quarantine

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — A quarantine is in place in New Port Richey after the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services confirmed a sighting of one of the most invasive pests on the planet, a giant African land snail.

The snail was reported by a Pasco County Cooperative Extension Service master gardener in a New Port Richey garden on June 21 and confirmed by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service on June 23.

Giant African land snails pose a serious health risk to humans by carrying the parasite rat lungworm, known to cause meningitis in humans. The snails should not be handled without proper protection and sanitation.

The snails, which can grow to be about the size of a fist, eat many plants, including peas, beans and cucumbers. But if they can’t find enough vegetation, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said they will eat paint or stucco off a house.

The department's division of plant industry is surveying the area, has enacted a quarantine and, on June 29, began treating for this detrimental pest using metaldehyde-based molluscicide (snail bait), approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for residential use.

The quarantine is in place starting at the northwest corner of U.S. 19 and Ridge Road, and proceeds east on Ridge Road, south on Little Road, west on Trouble Creek Road and then north on U.S. 19.

Property owners inside the treatment area will be notified in person or by posted notice at least 24 hours before pesticide treatment.

Metaldehyde is a pesticide used to control snails and slugs and is approved for use in a variety of vegetable and ornamental crops in the field or greenhouse, on fruit trees, small-fruit plants, avocado and citrus orchards, berry plants, banana plants and in limited residential areas.

Available products can be applied as granules, sprays, dusts or bait pellets. Applications are typically made to the ground around the plants or crops to be protected.

Metaldehyde works by disrupting the mucus production ability of snails and slugs. This reduces their digestion and mobility and makes them susceptible to dehydration. Snails and slugs that have eaten metaldehyde often seek hiding places, become inactive and begin to die within days.

The FDACS is asking anyone who sees one of the giant snails to email a photo for identification to DPIHelpline@FDACS.gov.

They can be distinguished from other Florida snails by their large size, and by characteristics of the shell including regular longitudinal bands.

According to the agriculture department, the giant African land snail (Lissachatina fulica) is one of the most invasive pests on the planet, causing agricultural and environmental damage wherever it is found. This snail was twice established in southeastern Florida and was successfully eradicated both times.

Because they're rarely found alone, the division of the plant industry is searching for others in the area. They can reproduce as young as 4 months old, laying many thousands of eggs in its multiple-year life span

Although the snail is popular in the pet trade in other countries, it is illegal to sell or possess them in the United States.

The snail can survive in many environments, and are primarily active at night, hiding in cool, damp places during the day.

The snails can move long distances when they cling to vehicles and machinery, or in yard trash. During unfavorable environmental conditions, the snail can survive by burying itself in soil and remaining inactive for up to a year.

The agriculture department said the snail spreads by hitching rides on transportation carrying local produce and is intentionally brought into countries by people to use as food, folk medicine and religious ceremonies.

It's routinely intercepted by USDA inspectors in Hawaii and in containers and in the baggage of international travelers from Asia, and occasionally from Africa, the West Indies and South America. It is also part of an illegal pet trade, both within the United States and from Europe.

The giant African snail has been documented as causing economic damage to more than 500 different species of economically important agricultural plants, as well as plants of horticultural,
cultural and medicinal value.

It also distributes in its feces spores of Phytophthora palmivora, the cause of black pod disease in cacao plants in Ghana, as well as P. parasitica and P. colocasiae. This species is responsible for the spread of foot rot in Piper nigrum.

Believed to be originally from East Africa, it is now established on the Ivory Coast and Morocco, and throughout the Indo-Pacific Basin, including Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the Hawaiian Islands.

It's also found in Anguilla, Saint Martin, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante,
Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad, Aruba and Curaçao as well as throughout
Brazil and northernmost Argentina. The giant African snail was detected in Cuba in a Havana
neighborhood in 2014 and has been rapidly spreading across the island ever since.

The giant African land snail has been eradicated twice in Florida. The first detection was in 1969 and it was finally eradicated in 1975.

The snails were found again in Miami-Dade County in 2011, and it took until 2021 and cost $24 million to destroy more than 168,000 snails plus millions of eggs, agricultural officials said.

The last live snail in Florida was collected in Miami-Dade County in December 2017, and the verified sighting in New Port is the first since that time.