Parts of Broward County under quarantine due to giant African land snails (www.nbcmiami.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Exaggeration207@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

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The snail can grow up to eight inches long, and can potentially carry the parasite rat lungworm, which may cause meningitis in humans and animals. The snail should not be handled without gloves because of the meningitis risk.

The snails can lay over 2,500 eggs in just one year, making the population difficult to contain. Florida has successfully eradicated the giant African land snail twice before, in 1975 and 2021.

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[-] Lowbird@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I'm pretty sure African Land Snails are one of those animals that get imported as "pets" by rich idiots, and this is why they are in florida now.

Could also be eggs that hitched a ride on something else, but some people love mega-snails, so.

[-] Sean@liberal.city 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

@Lowbird I suspect that it didn't take that much money to get one of these as a pet, it was probably a bunch of middle class Florida men/women that this "genius" move. I'm just challenging the "rich idiots" with the likelihood that not so rich idiots are to blame

this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023

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