“Of course, in areas that are irrigated, like in nurseries or in home landscapes, they will be perfectly happy,” he added. Giant African land snails typically “like humid, and they like dense vegetation.” “Pasco County is quite a bit drier than South Florida because you’ve got that large area of scrub habitat,” said Bill Kern, an associate professor at the University of Florida who specializes in nuisance wildlife management.
During an especially rainy spring a few years ago, exterminators in Palm Beach County received a surge of calls about Bufo toads, whose toxin is so poisonous that it can kill dogs, found mating in pools. The snails’ return was a surprising and unwelcome development in a state where the wildlife routinely makes headlines - a record-breaking, 215-pound Burmese python was caught in the Everglades late last year - and where invasive species routinely wreak havoc. The quarantine extends from a radius of about a half-mile from the identified snail population and may change or grow if more snails are found. No plants, yard waste, debris, compost or building materials can lawfully be moved out without permission, for fear that the clingy mollusks will spread. To try to contain them, state officials placed a portion of Pasco County in the New Port Richey area under quarantine this week. The dreaded snails - known to invasive-species connoisseurs as GALS - were spotted in June by a gardener in Pasco County, north of Tampa, the first time a population of them has been detected outside of South Florida. MIAMI - The giant African land snail, which can grow to the size of a fist and carry a parasite that causes meningitis, was declared eradicated from South Florida last year after a decade-long battle of people versus pests.
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