Crawl for Your Lives

(ABC News Florida)

More than once I've written about how my loathing of African snails is one of the reasons I haven't moved back to my home state.

It turns out that they're headed our way. (They're already in Florida.)

Two live giant African snails were found at the Port of Oakland this month — with a bunch of eggs — by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who were inspecting the docks....The giant snail is considered one of the world’s most invasive pests — and has spread from the shores of eastern Africa across two oceans and onto the Pacific islands. It lays up to 1,200 eggs a year and carries rat lungworm, a disease that can cause a brain-eating form of meningitis.[snip]

The big concern is that there has not been an effective method to curb the spread and that the snails have no known predators in the United States. “If they get in your yard and the climate is suitable, they can destroy every plant in sight.”

Although eating invasive species has become increasingly popular, cleansing a wild African snail of toxins and disease for the purpose of human consumption seems to be more trouble than it's worth. Like the cockroach and the toad, these are creatures that Noah should have left off his ark.