Giant Snails Invade Florida

Nobody knows how the got in to town. They can grow to be as long as eight inches and they eat at least 500 types of plants. They can also destroy stucco and plaster They can be deadly. It's the invasion of the Giant African Snails and this isn't some nightmare from a Stephen King novel.

According to ABC news, officials in Miami discovered they had a problem last week when a resident flagged down a fruit fly inspector and showed him what she found in her yard.Large snails. Officials have been targeting a one square mile area around the home, trying to round up all of the pests.

So far more than a thousand snails have been recovered and there is a long ways to go. The snails contain both male and female reproductive organs and typically lay about 1200 eggs per year.The snails carry a parasite that can be deadly, and will feed on just about any crop, fruit, vegetable, even the side of houses.

Officials say they could have come from a smuggling incident that's been under investigation since 2010. The state dealt with a similar problem back in the 60s when a boy smuggled three snails onto a flight to raise them as pets. It took 10 years to eradicate the snails.