Giant African Snail Pops Up in Australia; Authorities on Alert

Australian authorities announced Monday that they had found and destroyed a giant African snail in Brisbane.

It all happened, according to The Brisbane Times, when someone called the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry after finding the large snail, the size of a cricket ball, crawling across their cement yard. The DAFF official who responded to the call confirmed it to be an African snail – a giant, non-native pest, infamous for its voracious appetite for more than 500 types of crops.

Authorities destroyed the animal.

In a statement published Monday, DAFF regional manager Paul Nixon said that officers found no evidence of other snails, eggs or snail trails when they further inspected the container yard. However, he reiterated that they will continue precautionary surveillance over the coming week.

“Giant African Snails are one of the world’s largest and most damaging land snails," he said.

‘‘Australia’s strict biosecurity requirements and responsive system has so far kept these pests out of Australia and we want to keep it that way.’’

"The pest has an insatiable appetite and is capable of destroying 500 types of plants, including vegetable crops, fruit trees, and Australia’s native eucalypts."

‘‘Australia’s strict biosecurity requirements and responsive system has so far kept these pests out of Australia and we want to keep it that way," said Nixon.

Australian officials have the battle that Floridians are now fighting with Giant African Snails to draw inspiration from.

The US Department of Agriculture describes the exotic pest in a blog in the following terms: “big and slimy, the giant African snail is well-equipped to become an invasive species: they have voracious appetites, reproduce quickly, live a long time, and have no natural predators in Florida. The first snails were discovered and reported by a Miami homeowner in September 2011. In just six months, APHIS and FDACS have collected more than 40,000 of these giant creepy crawlies.

Originally from East Africa, the snail has established itself throughout the Indo-Pacific Basin, including the Hawaiian Islands, and has been introduced into the Caribbean. Like other invasive species, giant African snails could enter the United States as hitchhikers on imported cargo. More often than not, however, the snails are smuggled illegally into the United States as pets or for food. When released into the environment, they can wreak major havoc on agriculture and the environment—much like what is happening in Florida right now."