Invasive land snails

[havalotta]

The Giant African Land Snail

Land snails as such are capable of laying up to 5-6 clutches of nearly 500 eggs per clutch in a years time.
That's aprox 1,200 NEW snails... per snail... per year and they don't even need a mate to do this. They have the ability to self fertilize!!!!

[havalotta]

Did you know that?
I hadn't....

Many many years ago.... I purchased what I thought was one the most odd, neatest, easiest to take care of critters ever. Having a 20 gallon long fish tank already set up as a terrarium I set him inside. Knowing how good a snail can travel up most anything I closed him inside placing a screened cover atop.

This little/BIG guy/snail ate whatever veggie scraps I set in. It's appetite was insatiable but I was ok with that. He was an awesome specimen, crawled about daily and not so much nocturnal like some creatures are. Calcium supplements were added for shell growth and strength, a good dose of daily sunshine, and vitamins provided whatever I thought he could possibly need.

Then........

[havalotta]

Not long after he was set inside.... he began eating up my beautifully planted terrarium. This..... I was not so happy about but, life goes on. His cage became pretty stark looking, a bit muddy and not lush like it once had. I adjusted the terrain accordingly to my snail. My cool cool veggie munching tank licking snail.

A little pond was set into the soil, flat rocks became a zen like path meandering around the pond. Hmmmm needing something upright, driftwood specimens were added. Always making sure he was secured inside for having seen his appetite I KNEW this was one creature that surely shouldn't escape into our home much less the environment should he creep forth further and on out the door

[havalotta]

Oh happy day's!!!!!!!!!!!!
One fine day, I became the proud grand mommy of who knows how many lil snail eggs she laid. In time, they hatched and we had fun raising and watching those wee lil babes grow and boy did they grow and eat and grow....Real fast!

Sooooo with quarters getting cramped, I set them up in wee lil versions of her habitat and off They went to market to be sold.
Oh boy, They were real money makers once people saw how big the mother was!

All were sold and then....another and then....

[havalotta]

She had another large batch of eggs...
We grew and also sold but by this time my market was already beginning to slow down.... Whomever wanted them already had bought them so with thiers getting larger and mine prolifically producing seemingly non stop and knowing I Can NOT.... and will NOT let them go just because I now haven't a route to go with them, I sold mom and all....of her next clutch to one last customer at a great deal she couldn't refuse. I was FREE at last. Not saying I didn't enjoy the ride but she was....becoming a problem

One good thing I did do was........ to tell people NOT to let them go outside and to find a home for theirs should the time come they lost interest in theirs as I feared they could do harm outdoors and possibly survive and or go on to defoliate our environment. Hopefully they followed through with what advice I had given them

[havalotta]

Well to cut a long story short...... You're probably wondering why I just told you how I (Unknowingly) spread these lil/HUGE terribly invasive, destructive, critters throughout our area.

It wasn't long after that, we welcomed in a caller at out door. The Feds or whomever it was. (Don't recall who exactly anymore as it was a loooong time ago but ) This person contacted us because someone had told them where they had gotten their giant snails from. GIANT snails that were apparently........... illegal to own much less multiply and sell!!!


.

[will-o-wisp]

What a story havallotta.

[havalotta]

A while back I noticed a group on facebook with a lead in of..... Share the beauty of animals and the beautiful nature of our planet.

Not to promote another group here but it had such beautiful beautiful nature images of our world and it's inhabitants, I jumped aboard.

Upon noticing the person running the group was posting photos gleaned from google I sent her a private message to inform her that I thought.... posting photos of other peoples photos without their name inclusive was something that wasn't suppose to be done. Basically trying to warn her of possible trouble by doing so as I didn't want my daily dose of pretties to be shut down. I don't think it was ever read or so appeared not to have been. Oh well, I tried and then......

[havalotta]

Up came a photo of these very snails and talk about how great they were!!!!

What would you do?....

[havalotta]

Posting a photo of the snails with a group as such is what this group is all about but..... to go on and promote them? As beautiful as they may be visually, I didn't think promoting them was a good thing so I went on to gather validation as to how to educate this person, this group, on how detrimental they can be to our environment and also... illegal to own in most states.

I don't think this is one of the actual links I had added but it speaks of the basic educational facts.
See: Giant African Land Snail – New York Invasive Species Information

Because of their large size, ability to consume over 500 different kinds of plants, and cause damage to plaster and stucco buildings, the giant African land snail is one of the most damaging snails in the world. The snails are also a potential risk to human health because they can carry a parasitic nematode that can cause meningitis.