oh... this snail (Achatina fulica) is spreading all over
Brazil... including Amazonia (there are reports of it in Manaus
- AM.).

Regards
Fabio Wiggers


 --- "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> escreveu:
> This article was brought to my attention.  I doubt the snails
> would last
> through the winter if released into the wild.
>
> Large African Mollusk Poses Threat to North Carolina Crops.
>
> Ridder/Tribune Business News; 6/4/2004
>
> By Kristin Collins, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Knight
> Ridder/Tribune Business News
> _____________________________________________
>
> Jun. 4--North Carolina has faced down exotic pests before:
> Japanese
> beetles, gypsy moths, fire ants.
>
> Now, state officials are on the lookout for one that is far
> bigger, not to
> mention slimier: the giant African snail.
>
> The brown-shelled gastropod can grow to a relatively massive 8
> inches long
> and live nine years, and its reproductive rate belies its
> dawdling
> reputation. It can destroy acre upon acre of crops and shrubs,
> and it
> sometimes carries a parasite that causes meningitis.
>
> State agriculture officials suspect that schoolchildren might
> be raising
> these voracious mollusks as classroom projects, part of a
> widely used
> curriculum. None has been found in the state yet, but with
> school out for
> the summer, officials fear that teachers are setting them
> loose.
>
> "It could be an agricultural disaster," said Ken Ahlstrom, a
> state
> Department of Agriculture research specialist. "They'll eat
> almost any
> vegetable that's grown around here."
>
> Considered one of the most destructive snails in the world,
> they also will
> eat trees, shrubs -- even the paint off houses.
>
> Since last fall, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors
> have seized more
> than 4,000 of the African snails from pet shops, breeders and
> classrooms in
> six states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and
> Pennsylvania. None
> of those found so far have carried the deadly parasite, which
> the snails
> pick up from rats.
>
> Months of investigation convinced the inspectors that use of
> the snails is
> widespread, both as classroom projects and as exotic pets,
> said department
> spokesman Nolan Lemon. So with the end of the school year
> looming, they
> placed the outlaw snail on the nationwide most-wanted list.
>
> The N.C. Department of Agriculture recently sent letters to
> pet shops,
> health departments and schools across the state. State
> officials are asking
> anyone who sees the snails to call them immediately.
>
> Alarm bells went off Thursday when Ahlstrom received a report
> of a
> suspicious snail in Salter Path. He inspected and determined
> that the snail
> was a native.
>
> Eleanor Hasse, a science consultant with the state Department
> of Public
> Instruction, said she doesn't know whether any North Carolina
> teachers are
> unwittingly using African snails, but she said snails are a
> common teaching
> tool. Recently, she said, forums for science teachers have
> been abuzz with
> talk of the illegal snail.
>
> Teachers will be careful to use native snails next year, she
> said.
>
> No local snail will be quite as impressive as the giant
> African, which
> rapidly grows longer than a human hand. All over the Midwest,
> teachers
> said, they thrilled students with their enormous pointy shells
> and copious
> slime.
>
> Their destructive power outweighs their gross-out value.
>
> Giant African snails got loose in Florida in the mid-1960s,
> when a boy
> smuggled three of them back to Miami after a trip to Hawaii.
> The snails are
> established in Hawaii, and officials there have given up hope
> of
> eradicating them.
>
> The boy's grandmother released them into her garden, according
> to the USDA.
> Seven years later, more than 18,000 of the snails had been
> found in
> Florida. It took 10 years and more than $1 million to
> eradicate them.
>
> This time, agriculture officials are hoping to find them
> before they ooze
> into the wild again.
>
> "Some people think they're cool pets," Lemon said. "I'd just
> get a dog."
>
> GIANT AFRICAN SNAIL
> SPECIES: Achatina fulica, Achatina achatina, Archachatina
> marginata,
> Limicolaria aurora
> SHELL: Brown, with up to nine whorls
> SKIN: Beige and slimy
> EYES: On stalks
>
> DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Has both male and female
> reproductive
> organs and can lay 1,200 eggs a year; eats 500 types of
> plants, including
> tobacco, cotton, cucumbers and melons.
>
> If you have seen a giant African snail, call the N.C.
> Department of
> Agriculture's Plant Industry Division at 733-6930.
>
>
>
>
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