I wonder if my ammonia slug spray would work on them!! ish ish ish

I love escargot, but the NYT says these snails can carry a parasite, rat lungworm, that causes meningitis in humans and animals.

Egads.

Creeps me out! .

Maybe the cane toad will eat all of them.

Yikes, one more thing to get out of the way of. And, don't forget the boas. They have a bounty on their heads.

The one found is in the same county as our lake cabin, lots of media coverage in the area to bring awareness. One can lay 20,000 + eggs yearly.

Hopefully this one was sterile and didn’t arrive with any snail friends.

I'm not normally squeamish but giant versions of "regular" animals gross me out. For instance, huge catfish also turn my stomach for some reason.

I actually thought it was cute until i read what it is/does. You'll need a whole keg of beer to kill that one.

don't forget the boas. Also burmese pythons, they recently found a 215 lb almost 18 feet long burmese python in Florida.

The pythons, iguanas and perhaps the snails, were most likely pets at one time. Released by the owners, now causing additional havoc in the state.

eta: 122 eggs in that python pictured above.

Um 😳

Just uck.

I just hope it stays in Florida with the alligators and giant snakes.

1. I'm not certain, but think this snail is what I've seen on Maui. Better this than a centipede any day. I've never seen anything as fast as one of those nasty, poisonous critters.

They're not all originally pets, of course. Once they're out in the environment, they breed freely, it seems. Our lake at work is full of red-eared slider turtles, and we've spotted some really big, colorful iguanas too.

And I thought I read that authorities nabbed some guy from GA who was selling these snails...?

I used to have a bright yellow channeled apple snail as a pet (mislabeled at the pet store as a "mystery" snail). She was about baseball sized and cute as can be. Ate any houseplants that dipped into her pond. (It was an indoor pond with no outdoor access.) She would have taken great pleasure in decimating the rice fields here in the delta and looked adorable doing it.

I kinda like snails though.

Just one more reason I’m proud to say 1987 was the last year I officially resided in Florida.

@lucille, the young man on the left in that big python picture is the son of a high school friend of mine. High school friend is equally enamored of snakes, so the apple didn’t fall far from the tree on that one.

New England is the place for me - we have long winters and killing frosts. No pythons, alligators or mega-snails...

Another vote for New England. My parents lived in Florida for 30 years and I thought it was great, but more and more it seems like a good place to stay away from--for reasons that go beyond the wildlife.

Sorry, Florida, but I won't be visiting. I had a hard enough time in the Miami airport (going through immigration and customs) as it was.

I kinda like snails though.

Me too, when I had aquariums sometimes I kept various snails. I didn't like slugs in the garden though.

I think snails are cool too. I kept pet garden snails and slugs for awhile for the playcamp kids - until they multiplied by the hundreds and ate every blessed thing down to the soil in the terrarium we made for them.

I too like snails. Don't tell them I like escargot as well..

Maybe the giant snails could be fed to the feral pigs that are reeking havoc. There's just entirely too many invasive species.

Yes.....from the land of the occasional -30F, I'll stay where I am!

I like snails too but this one weirded me out.

I saw some of those on Oahu several years ago while I was bike riding. I noted with disgust that several of these large snails had been intentionally, I thought, run over. Afterward, I mentioned it to a friend who lives on the island and she said that they are so destructive that if they see them, they kill them. I don't like the thought but totally get it. Otherwise, I really like small snails that don't eat my garden plants, and very much enjoyed a book called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova.

Oh dear - I imagine smashing one of those giant snails would be a horrorshow!