They are not snails anywhere.
State officials quarantined part of a Florida town Tuesday as they race to eradicate the invasive giant African snail that carries parasites.
The 3.5-mile section of Miramar in Broward County, located just 11 miles west of Hollywood, will be coated with a metaldehyde-based molluscicide to exterminate giant African snails after at least one was found in the area earlier this month.
Residents will be allowed to leave the treatment area freely, but are prohibited from moving any plant-based supplies that may harbor mammoth mollusk eggs.
“Under quarantine, it is unlawful to move an African giant land snail or a regulated article, including but not limited to plants, parts of plants, soil plants, soil, garden waste, debris, compost or materials from construction, within, through, or from the defined quarantine area without a compliance agreement,” the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. announced
The agency confirmed that a giant African snail, which can grow up to 8 inches long, was seen in the area in June, prompting an increase in the survey.
Giant African snails have been considered “one of the most damaging snails in the world” because of their threat to both agriculture and human life.
Snails carry the dreaded rat lungworm parasite that can induce meningitis in humans.
They are also capable of devastating vegetation and are known to eat over 500 types of plants.
Molluscs can produce up to 1,200 eggs per year.
Florida has already eradicated the snail twice since discovering it in 2010; most recently, a 10-year effort in Miami-Dade County that cost $23 million and ended in 2021 after collecting about 170,000 snails.
Broward County’s quarantine is the third to be put into effect in Florida in the last year.
A swath of Lee County on the West Coast was quarantined after the massive detection of the mollusk in December, just six months later. Pasco County suffered the same affliction.
Español de Venezuela 
English