Public Service Announcement!!!! from (02/25/2006) on Mating Hawaiian Snails

bugman

February 21st, 2006 at 1:00 am

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GAL Snail Love
LOVE your website! When I saw the loving Leopard Slugs I remembered these two photos I took near Wahiawa, Ohau, Hawaii, November 2005. I believe they are Giant African Landsnails, an introduced species. I found the second couple a few feet away from the first and they look like they are just getting started. For your mollusk fan – I think that is a small snail of another type on the leaf to the left of flirting pair. Thanks for providing all the great bug info. I’ve used your website several times to identify bugs since recently moving here.
Aloha, Chrissie

Hi Chrissie,
Thank you for the wonderful letter and fascinating photographs.

Wpdate: WARNING!!!!
(02/25/2006) Those Giant African Land Snails
Hello again nice bug people,
It was nice to see more snail pictures, but: I wanted to let your readers know that these Giant African Snails (Achatina species) are rapidly becoming an extremely problematic pest in many tropical areas, all over the world, including Hawaii, and they are a pest that is very difficult and costly to eliminate once they are well-established. Florida for example struggled for 10 years and spent a million dollars in order to bring a large infestation under control. For more information see:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ep/emerging_pests/gas.html
Although unfortunately these snails are still being sold in many pet stores, is now actually illegal to own them in the continental USA, and people who have one or more in their possession are being asked to contact their state department of agriculture. For a list of contacts see:
http://www.ceris.purdue.edu/napis/names/sphdXstate.html
You see, when people keep them as pets, the snails often get accidentally introduced to an area, either by letting snails go, or even just by the eggs being accidentally thrown out with soil from the vivarium. These snails can be amazingly destructive to the agriculture and the horticulture of an area, and they tend to trigger the disappearance or even extinction of many interesting local snail species too. In addition (if all that was not enough! ) these problematic pest species can also carry human parasites and pathogens. If by any chance you are reading this and you have one or several of these snails as pets, please do not give your snail(s) to someone else, or throw it (them) out, and please also be very careful not to throw the soil out either, especially if you live in a warm climate area.
Thanks everyone,
Susan J. Hewitt

Thank you for the Public Service announcement Susan.