April 14 Photo Brief: Florida fights giant land snails, Venezuela 2013 election, Miss World South Sudan
Florida fights giant land snails, Venezuelan citizens heads to the polls to vote in presidential election, Miss World South Sudan and more in today’s daily brief.
- People line up to cast their vote at a polling station in Petare shantytown, Caracas, on April 14, 2013. Venezuelans headed to the polls on April 14 to elect Hugo Chavez’s successor, with his political heir, Nicolas Maduro, hoping to continue his socialist revolution and rival Henrique Capriles vowing change in the divided nation. Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)
- Venezuelan acting president and presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro gestures before casting his vote in Caracas, on April 14, 2013. Venezuelans flocked to the polls Sunday to vote for Hugo Chavez’s successor, choosing between the handpicked heir of his socialist revolution and an opponent vowing change in the divided nation. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)
- Venezuela’s opposition leader and presidential candidate Henrique Capriles (R) arrives to vote for the successor to late President Hugo Chavez, in Caracas April 14, 2013. Venezuelans went to the polls to decide whether to honor Chavez’s dying wish for a longtime loyalist to continue his hardline socialism or hand power to a young challenger vowing business-friendly changes. (Christian Veron/Reuters)
- A figurine of Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez is seen surrounded by candles and religious images in the “Saint Hugo Chavez” altar at the 23 de Enero neighbourhood in Caracas April 12, 2013. Fresh flowers were placed and new candles burning on Sunday at the “Saint Hugo Chavez” shrine in Caracas where devotees of the late socialist leader prayed for his last wishes to be fulfilled in the presidential vote. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)
- A Venezuelan boy living in Colombia accompanies her mother to vote in Bogota, on April 14, 2013. Venezuelans flocked to the polls Sunday to vote for Hugo Chavez’s successor, choosing between the handpicked heir of his socialist revolution and an opponent vowing change in the divided nation. (Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Giant African land snail is seen in this handout picture from the Florida Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Industry taken September 19, 2011. South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster. (Florida Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Industry HO/Reuters)
- A Giant African land snail is seen in this handout picture from the Florida Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Industry taken September 9, 2011. South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster. (Florida Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Industry HO via Reuters)
- A man steers a carriage as he participates in a carriage exhibition at the Maestranza bullring in the Andalusian capital of Seville, southern Spain April 14, 2013. (Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters)
- Manuela Matong (C) is crowned Miss World South Sudan during the national final contest in Juba, South Sudan, April 13, 2013. The finals of the Miss World contest will take place in September in Indonesia. Picture taken April 13, 2013. (Andreea Campeanu/Reuters)
- A Hindu priest presses his sword against his disciple as they perform a stunt during the annual Shiva Gajan religious festival at Pratapgarh, on the outskirts of the northeastern Indian city of Agartala, April 14, 2013. Hundreds of faithful devotees offer sacrifices and perform acts of devotion during the festival in the hopes of winning the favour of Hindu god Shiva and ensuring the fulfillment of their wishes and also to mark the end of the Bengali calendar year. (Jayanta Dey/Reuters)
- A runner casts a shadow as he takes part in the Vienna City Marathon in Vienna April 14, 2013. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)
- Local artists trace an outline of their bodies with chalk to represent persons killed by guns, at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool as they take part in a “flash mob” performance in protest against gun violence in the US, April 14, 2013 in Washington DC. According to the organizers the “art-meets-flash mob” performance is a visual reflection of the destruction caused by gun violence. (Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images)
- A man rests outdoor during spring flood in the Belarus village of Khvoensk, some 280 km south of Minsk, on April 14, 2013. (Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images)
- In this handout photos, goats eat grass at Bakara Animal Market in Mogadishu, Somalia on April 13, 2013. Once notorious for being the site of Black Hawk Down, in which 18 American soldiers were killed in 1993, and later as an al-Shabaab stronghold, Bakara market is slowly losing its past notoriety and becoming better known for its thriving economy. In the district’s animal market, thousands of goats are brought each morning, where they are sold to later be slaughtered for their meat. (Tobin Jones/AU-UN IST via AFP/Getty Images)
- Afghan children play in a park in Gozara district on the outskirts of Herat on April 13, 2013. Children in Afghanistan suffer one of the highest levels of chronic malnutrition in the world, according to reports, despite billions of dollars in aid that have poured into the war-torn country. (Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Lion Air Boeing 737 lies submerged in the water after missing the runaway during landing at Bali’s international airport near Denpasar on April 14, 2013. The Indonesian plane carrying more than 100 passengers broke in two after missing the runway at Bali airport on April 13 and landing in the sea, leaving dozens injured but no fatalities. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)
- People participate in the Fifth annual Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade along Ocean Drive on April 14, 2013 in Miami Beach, Florida. The event which drew tens of thousands to watch featured a record number of participants according to the event organizers, with 73 float entries and 1,500 people walking with their organizations. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
- A woman reacts to being soaked by water during a community water fight as part of the Songkran water festival on April 14, 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Songkran festival marks the traditional Thai New Year and is celebrated each year from April 13 to 15. The throwing of water originated as a way to pay respect to people and is meant as a symbol of cleansing and purification.(Jack Kurtz/Getty Images)
Florida battles slimy invasion by giant snails
Barbara Liston Reuters
1:52 p.m. EDT, April 14, 2013
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.
More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Residents will soon likely begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state’s rainy season in just seven weeks, Feiber said.
The snails attack “over 500 known species of plants … pretty much anything that’s in their path and green,” Feiber said.
In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails’ shells blow out tires on the highway and turn into hurling projectiles from lawnmower blades, while their slime and excrement coat walls and pavement.
“It becomes a slick mess,” Feiber said.
A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year and the creatures are a particular pest in homes because of their fondness for stucco, devoured for the calcium content they need for their shells.
The snails also carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the United States.
EXOTIC INVASION
The snails’ saga is something of a sequel to the Florida horror show of exotic species invasions, including the well-known infestation of giant Burmese pythons, which became established in the Everglades in 2000. There is a long list of destructive non-native species that thrive in the state’s moist, subtropical climate.
Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the mollusks, including use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.
Feiber said investigators were trying to trace the snail infestation source. One possibility being examined is a Miami Santeria group, a religion with West African and Caribbean roots, which was found in 2010 to be using the large snails in its rituals, she said. But many exotic species come into the United States unintentionally in freight or tourists’ baggage.
“If you got a ham sandwich in Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, or an orange, and you didn’t eat it all and you bring it back into the States and then you discard it, at some point, things can emerge from those products,” Feiber said.
Authorities are expanding a series of announcements on buses, billboards and in movie theaters urging the public to be on the lookout.
The last known Florida invasion of the giant mollusks occurred in 1966, when a boy returning to Miami from a vacation in Hawaii brought back three of them, possibly in his jacket pockets. His grandmother eventually released the snails into her garden where the population grew in seven years to 17,000 snails. The state spent $1 million and 10 years eradicating them.
Feiber said many people unfamiliar with the danger viewed the snails as cute pets.
“They’re huge, they move around, they look like they’re looking at you … communicating with you, and people enjoy them for that,” Feiber said. “But they don’t realize the devastation they can create if they are released into the environment where they don’t have any natural enemies and they thrive.”
(Editing by David Adams and Peter Cooney)
Edward Dooga
Apr 15, 2013 @ 09:21:46
I am trying to raise a snail farm in Nigeria, and its a nuisance in Florida. The eradication program is simple: EAT THEM! They are quite nutritious. Else, harvest them for export to West Africa, and you’ll have a lot of revenue!
jinx
Apr 15, 2013 @ 09:11:41
you are wasting fat-free protein. eat them!