Ed Foster wrote:
 
> >The site that Mark recommended is certainly amusing,
> ><http://www.igor.demon.co.uk/snail.htm#introduction>
> >but the activity described is illegal in the United States!
> >
> >(It's illegal to own live Achatina without a permit from
> >the United States Department of Agriculture)
>
> I lived in Guam from 1959-61 (my father was in the Navy and stationed
> there) and remember that the place was rife with giant African land
> snails.
> About three years ago I got a chance to return to do a bit of SCUBA
> diving,
> shell collecting, and to see what changes had occured over the last 30
>
> years.  After a couple of days there I realized that there were no
> giant
> snails to be seen at all.  I asked the person running the boat we were
>
> diving from and he said that a biologist had, without getting prior
> approval, released some parasite that had pretty much wiped them out
> although there was reputed to be one remaining enclave somewhere in
> the
> northwest corner of Guam.  Supposedly the biologist denied that he'd
> done
> it and it was never proven that he had, but he left under a cloud of
> suspician. Can anyone correct or fill in more details of this story?
>
> --
> Ed Foster
> [log in to unmask]
 
   Harry Tasker writes:
 
I also lived on Guam from 1962-64 and was stationed at NCS  the home of
Tweeds Cave.  We had lots of those snails on our trees and the word we
received was the Shrews were imported to prey on the snails.
 
Harry