The African giant snail is inedible; the species is an intermediate host for many human and zoonotic parasites and pathogens, especially transmitting tuberculosis and eosinophilic meningitis, and is extremely dangerous to eat. The African giant snail can lay 30 to 700 eggs at a time and reproduces quickly.

Expanded Information

Invasive Species

Transmission Paths

Transmission paths are mainly through man-made means, first, through ships, trains, automobiles, airplanes, and other means of transportation, along with the spread of ornamental plants, seedlings, panels, containers, and cargo boxes; second, the African giant snail is large in individual size, appearance, and meat quality. Secondly, the African giant snail has a large individual, beautiful appearance and delicious meat, which is directly introduced by people as ornaments and food.

Environmental damage

African snail's target includes crops, forests, fruit trees, vegetables, flowers and other plants, and when hungry, it also feeds on paper and companion carcasses, and it can even gnaw and digest cement, and it can harm more than 500 kinds of crops. "African snail" is a lot of human and animal parasites and pathogens of the intermediate host, especially the spread of tuberculosis and eosinophilic meningitis, eating is very harmful.

The African giant snail is recognized as one of the worst snails in the tropics and subtropics. It eats large numbers of native plants and changes habitat. Competition for native snails. The African giant snail may also provide an alternative food source for predators, altering the food chain and thus the native ecosystem.

If the predator is also an invasive species, there may be unfortunate consequences. For example, in the Bonin Islands of Japan, invasive cane toads have been found to eat large African snails. However, natural predation may also help control populations of African giant snails.

For example, on Christmas Island, African snails have yet to establish in disturbed rainforests; the reason is thought to be that the native Christmas Island red crab eats large numbers of snails.

The African giant snail is a major pest of crops, eating a wide variety of crops and causing serious economic losses.In 1969 the state of Florida in the United States estimated that the African giant snail would cause losses of $11 million per year if populations were not controlled (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1982).

The African giant snail is a major pest of crops, eating a wide variety of crops and causing serious economic losses.

In India, it reached a state of severe infestation, especially in 1946-47, when it appeared in epidemic proportions in Orissa, wreaking havoc on vegetable crops and paddy fields.

The plants most likely to be damaged by the snail are, garden flowers and ornamentals and vegetables, (especially crucifers, cucurbits and legumes) and young plants of breadfruit, cassava and teak.

The African giant snail may also increase the spread of plant diseases (for example, Phytophthorapalmivora) caused by the black pod disease), and its spread in its excreta.?

Infectious Diseases

The African giant snail is a vector for a number of pathogens and parasites that transmit the rodent lung nematode, which infects humans causing a form of meningitis. With the bacteria Aeromonas hyfrophila (Kliks and Palumbo 1992).

Parasites in snails are usually transmitted to humans by eating raw or undercooked snails.

For example, 16 Korean fishermen in American Samoa were infected with eosinophilic encephalitis after eating a meal of large African snails infected with Angiostrongylus cantonensis parasites (Kliks et al. 1992). (Kliks et al. 1982).

Geographic distribution

Originally from eastern Africa, but by the 21st century it had become widespread in hot and humid regions of Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Americas.

It is found in Japan, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, the Northern Mariana Islands, Canada, the United States. As well as Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Hainan, and Taiwan in China.

Breeding mode

This species is hermaphroditic, heterogamous, and highly reproductive. It can lay eggs 4 times a year, 150-300 eggs each time. After the eggs hatch, the sexual development matures in 5 months, and the life span of adult snails is generally 5-6 years, with a maximum of 9 years.

Mating time is 9:30-11:00 p.m. Eggs are laid in the 1-2cm layer of soil under the humus and moist topsoil, or in the wetter piles of dead grass and garbage, with 150-300 eggs per head. The young snails do not feed when they are first hatched, but start to feed after 3-4 days. 5-6 months of sexual maturity.

Invasion Cases

Florida, USA

April 15, 2013, Taiwan's Daily News Cloud reported that thousands of giant African snails have invaded Florida, USA. The giant African snail invasion of Florida began in 1966, when a child brought three snails back to Miami from Hawaii, and within seven years they had become a colony of 17,000.

The local government spends millions of dollars a year dealing with the snails, but they explode again after the rainy season. A single female snail can lay up to 1,200 eggs a year and goes on a lime-fueled diet to replenish calcium and promote shell development. In addition, they transmit the rat lung nematode, which has the potential to infect humans causing a form of meningitis.

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