Giant African Land Snails Take Miami
I've wasted a good bit of time looking back over my past 300+ posts to find what I may or may have not written about giant stucco eating Giant African Land Snails that have been found and are currently the subject of seek and destroy orders through out the Miami-Dade County area in Florida. I have also been noshing on golden raisins which causes my fingers to be a bit sticky and make the keys on this computer tacky too but that has nothing to do with this post today. Back to the snails, there is a new secret weapon being used in the fight against the fist sized varmints, that can lay 1,200 eggs each year and live up to ten years. His name is Bear and he is a three year old black lab that has been trained amazingly enough to sniff out the offending snails. Bear and some agricultural specialists armed with a newer stronger pest killer called metaldehyde have brought the number of snails found down from more than 1,000 to less than 100 per day. Along with their destructive habits of eating plants and building materials, the Giant African Land Snails have also been found to carry a parasite that can cause meningitis in humans adding even more importance to their impending demise. The U. S. Department of Agriculture hasn't declared victory over the pests yet but I hope they can soon before the Giant African Land Snails Take Miami.