Giant snails still terrorizing Florida despite massive expenditures

Four years after the first African giant snails appeared in Miami, they've spread to the suburbs and there seems to be no stopping them.

Though massive, with the largest yet recorded around seven inches long, the snails disappear underground where they stay undetected for months at a time. During the warm and wet hurricane season they rise to feed.

The ravenous gastropods can consume up to 500 different species of Floridian flora and have even been known to suck the stucco off of houses.

They're also dangerous.

Many snails consume infected rat feces. This turns them into hosts for a parasitic worm which can cause meningitis in humans.

Mark Fagan, a state agriculture department spokesman, spelled it out: "They're a human and animal health threat and they're a threat to Florida's agriculture. We can't let the population continue."

But the population has continued, though not for lack of trying. So far, Florida has spent nearly $11 million to eradicate the snail; employing pesticide, molluscicide, a snail-sighting hotline and even sniffer dogs.