1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:04,280
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

2
00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:09,760
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogue Bomb Here. They say that

3
00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:13,280
Speaker 1: everything is bigger in Texas, but that doesn't hold true

4
00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:16,880
Speaker 1: when it comes to snails. And that's not necessarily a

5
00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,720
Speaker 1: good thing. And that's because Florida has seen an invasion

6
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:26,119
Speaker 1: once again of the notorious giant African land snail and

7
00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:30,000
Speaker 1: the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services confirmed the

8
00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:34,120
Speaker 1: presence of the giant African land snails on June two

9
00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:38,440
Speaker 1: in Pascoe County after a master gardener first reported seeing one.

10
00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,239
Speaker 1: Six days later, the department quarantined to the area to

11
00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,760
Speaker 1: try to contain and treat these invasive snails. The quarantine

12
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:49,920
Speaker 1: means it's against the law to remove plants, yard waiste, debris,

13
00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,360
Speaker 1: compost or building materials from this area without permission. The

14
00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:56,960
Speaker 1: quarantine extends from a radius of about half a mile

15
00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,560
Speaker 1: from the identified snail population and may change grow if

16
00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,640
Speaker 1: more snails are found. A public information director from the

17
00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:07,320
Speaker 1: department told CNN that these snails likely originated from the

18
00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:12,080
Speaker 1: illegal pet trade. But why are these snails such a problem.

19
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:14,360
Speaker 1: It turns out they're one of the most invasive pests

20
00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:16,720
Speaker 1: on the planet. You can think of snails as a

21
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,319
Speaker 1: sort of biological cleanup crew. They'll eat just about any

22
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,560
Speaker 1: plant matter and anything that's dead too. This species will

23
00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,840
Speaker 1: eat at least five hundred different types of plants, so

24
00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:33,800
Speaker 1: they're potentially devastating to Florida's agriculture and natural areas, but

25
00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:36,440
Speaker 1: they can also be harmful to humans. They can carry

26
00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,319
Speaker 1: a parasite known as rat lung worm that's known to

27
00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:43,240
Speaker 1: cause meningitis. Humans can get infected with rat lungworm if

28
00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,400
Speaker 1: they eat raw or undercooked snails infected with the parasite,

29
00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:49,800
Speaker 1: and people can also get sick after eating contaminated produce

30
00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,680
Speaker 1: such as lettuce. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

31
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:56,840
Speaker 1: says it doesn't know whether the giant African land snails

32
00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:00,000
Speaker 1: in the United States are infected with rat lung worm,

33
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,600
Speaker 1: but it warns people should not handle the snails without

34
00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:06,840
Speaker 1: wearing gloves. It also advises people thoroughly wash fresh produce

35
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:11,000
Speaker 1: to prevent infection. The snails are illegal to own, import,

36
00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:13,959
Speaker 1: or sell in Florida without a permit for these reasons

37
00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:19,359
Speaker 1: and that name. They're not known as giant snails for nothing.

38
00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:24,359
Speaker 1: These massive mollusks dwarf all others in Florida and anywhere

39
00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:28,280
Speaker 1: else on Earth. Their shells are cone shaped, usually light

40
00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:31,120
Speaker 1: to dark brown in color, with golden stripes that run

41
00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:33,840
Speaker 1: the length. They can grow up to eight inches or

42
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,320
Speaker 1: twenty centimeters long. Compare that to other typical Florida snails,

43
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:40,919
Speaker 1: which average about one to one and a half inches

44
00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,760
Speaker 1: in length. That's about two and a half to four centimeters.

45
00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,720
Speaker 1: Researchers believe that the giant African land snail is originally

46
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,080
Speaker 1: from East Africa, though it's now found in the Ivory

47
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:56,720
Speaker 1: Coast and Morocco and throughout the Indo Pacific basin the Caribbean, Brazil,

48
00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:01,919
Speaker 1: and northernmost Argentina. It was first detected in Havana, Cuba,

49
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,239
Speaker 1: and has rapidly spread across the island ever since. A

50
00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: population was discovered in Costa Rica in one as well.

51
00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,560
Speaker 1: These snails can survive in many environments, though they do

52
00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:17,320
Speaker 1: require calcium because that's how they grow those shells. They

53
00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:21,480
Speaker 1: thrive in locations rich with limestone, moral and even concrete

54
00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 1: and cement. They live on average between three and five years,

55
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,280
Speaker 1: but can live as long as nine years, and in

56
00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:32,680
Speaker 1: that time they reproduce fast adult snails of these species

57
00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,560
Speaker 1: have both male and female sexual organs. They still need

58
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,640
Speaker 1: to mate to produce eggs, but any given snail can

59
00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:42,840
Speaker 1: impregnate any other given snail, or a pair can mutually

60
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 1: impregnate each other, and once they do, one snail can

61
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,960
Speaker 1: produce between four hundred and a thousand eggs a year.

62
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 1: The snails bury the eggs in cool soil, and when

63
00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,640
Speaker 1: they hatch, juvenile snails eat their eggshells and then burrow

64
00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,640
Speaker 1: underground for up to two weeks. If can get bad

65
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,280
Speaker 1: for adult snails, they can bury themselves in soil and

66
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:07,080
Speaker 1: stay dormant for up to a year. This isn't the

67
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,120
Speaker 1: first time Florida has seen an influx of giant African

68
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,560
Speaker 1: land snails. The pests were first detected in nineteen sixty

69
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,719
Speaker 1: nine and eradicated in nineteen seventy five. The most recent

70
00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:23,320
Speaker 1: eradication took eleven years from one during which the Florida

71
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,200
Speaker 1: Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked with the U.

72
00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,720
Speaker 1: S d A and canine detector dogs to find and

73
00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:32,960
Speaker 1: remove one hundred and sixty eight thousand, five hundred and

74
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,400
Speaker 1: thirty eight snails from thirty two areas in Broward and

75
00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,920
Speaker 1: Miami Dade Counties. Now the work has begun in Pascoe County.

76
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:49,200
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Giant African land

77
00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,560
Speaker 1: snails invade South Florida again on House to Forks dot com,

78
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:55,680
Speaker 1: written by Sarah Glime. Brain Stuff is production of by

79
00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,039
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com, and

80
00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,080
Speaker 1: it's produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsey Yew. Before more

81
00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,800
Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

82
00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,679
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,