Community Corner

Rat-Sized Snails Invade Florida

Wildlife officials are concerned about the proliferation of the giant African land snail and the risk it poses to crops in the Sunshine State.

The giant African land snail is not your garden variety pest.

It's the size of a rat, decimates Florida vegetation and has a particular fondness for eating cement and stucco on houses.

Wildlife officials are asking communities across Tampa Bay to be on the lookout for the distinctive snail, which leaves a wide swath of slime in its path.

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Biologists from the Department of Agriculture are setting traps for the snail, hoping to catch them before they overrun the Sunshine State.

Florida has a reputation for unusual creatures taking hold here, from poisonous toads to pythons.

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But wildlife officials are particularly concerned about the threat of the African land snail to native plants and Florida farms, according to National Geographic.

So far the giant African land snail has been found primarily in Miami-Dade, but it is reproducing so fast that officials are concerned that it may infest other parts of the Sunshine State.

Anyone who believes that he or she has encountered a giant African land snail should contact the Department of Agriculture at 888-397-1517. The public is warned not to try to kill the land snail but to wait for a wildlife expert to examine the creature.

The snail is known to eat 500 different types of plants. It has made its way into the Sunshine State via smugglers, as the snails are sometimes adopted as exotic pets and are used in an Africa-influenced religious practice that has flourished in Miami-Dade.

  • The snails reach adulthood at six months of age and can produce up to 100 eggs per month. They live up to eight years, growing as large as a rat.
  • The snails also will consume house stucco and cement for the calcium they contain, which hardens their shells.
  • They also carry disease, with parasites found in the slime of the snail, which can enter a person's body.

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