Snail Killers

I don’t know why I’ve written so much about killing animals today. But this story gives me shivers. Imagine being invaded by hoards of slow moving mollusks! As big as your fist! Barbados has that problem right now.

From the AP here:

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Ravenous giant snails that emerge from the ground by night are thriving on the tropical island of Barbados, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate them.

A nocturnal survey last weekend found hundreds of thousands of African snails which are often about the size of a human hand swarming the central parish of St. George, the country’s agricultural heartland, where farmers complained of damage to sugar cane, bananas, papayas and other crops.

“We saw snails riding on each other’s backs and moving in clusters,” said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office that organized 60 volunteers for the expedition. “You’re just crunching the shells as you’re walking through.”

The snails are known to consume as many as 500 different plants and can transmit meningitis and other diseases through their mucous.

It is illegal to bring the invasive snails into the United States, where the introduction of one in the 1970s led to an infestation that took nearly six years to eradicate.

Snails and slugs are hermaphroditic. They have both sexes, and in a pinch, can impregnate themselves. Just imagine if they could fly!