Barbados Invaded By Giant Snails

The Caribbean island of Barbados has been invaded by giant snails the size of a humans hand over the past 5 years. Reports indicate that the giant African snails are destroying crops in their nocturnal feeding binges and can carry diseases such as meningitis. There are said to be hundreds of thousands of them across the island.

A nocturnal “snail hunt” last weekend reported finding hundreds of thousands of giant African snails swarming the central parish of St. George, the country’s agricultural heartland where farmers had complained of damage to crops including sugar cane, bananas and papayas.

“We saw snails riding on each other’s backs and moving in clusters,” said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office that organized 60 volunteers for the hunt. “You’re just crunching the shells as you’re walking through.”

The volunteers sprayed government-supplied pesticides in gullies and other cool, low-lying areas where the snails are believed to breed, venturing out after dark to catch the snails as they emerge from spending the day underground. Walrond’s brigade plans to continue its assault over the next three weekends.

The snails, which are about the size of a human hand, are known to consume as many as 500 different plants and their mucous can transmit meningitis and other diseases.

cbs4boston.com – Barbados Faces Invasion By Giant Snails.

7 Responses to “Barbados Invaded By Giant Snails”

1. joe bear on November 11th, 2006 12:56 pm

   Is this one of the plauges,and they missed aruba.

2. yoyo muffintop on November 11th, 2006 1:46 pm

   wow – those are cool looking. Would love to see someone eat one on Fear Factor.
   No need for pesticides – just start throwing a bunch of salt on them.

3. Riley on November 11th, 2006 1:59 pm

   Those things are huge.

4. joe bear on November 12th, 2006 12:09 am

   all it takes is a garlic,butter sauce and you feed watch that s’car go

5. Patti on November 12th, 2006 2:13 am

   SLLLLLLLLLLLIMMMMMMMMMmmmy….. plop!!!…
   MMMMmmmmm mmm GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6. stumpwater on November 12th, 2006 10:42 pm

   Ewwwwwwwww! Holy gross out Batman! No way you could get me to hold one even with a rubber glove.

7. dutchhog on November 13th, 2006 11:08 am

   sell them to the french!!!!escargos the size of steaks hhmmmmmm!!

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