Yesterday I reported on the Megarian Banded Centipede, a particularly obnoxious creepy-crawly that is extant throughout much of southern Europe and this means, of most particular interest to me, in Greece.
However, I wouldn't smirk too loudly as America has a new friend in the Giant East African Snail (Achatina fulica). CNN reports on it as the Giant African Snail (Achatina achatina) but it's more likely to be the East African variety which has made a new home in Florida. (CNN: It's real: attack of the giant African snails in Florida)
We have just GOT to see a picture of this little friend:
These aren't just big, they're gigantic and can be up to twenty centimeters / eight inches long. According to CNN, the shell is so sharp it can puncture a car tire. I'll leave it to your imagination what it sounds like / feels like when you squish one.
These creatures are hugely-invasive, hugely-destructive, and multiply at incredible speed so, naturally, some whackjobs keep them as pets. No, I am not kidding. Whether these are the same whackjobs (who prefer to be called eccentric) as the ones who keep the giant centipedes is something I really don't want to know except to alert me that they live in houses I would never want to visit. There is some thinking that it was pets released into the wild that started the infestation. (Wiki: Achatina fulica)
If you're interested in a molluscian sexual tingle, you might want to read the Wiki as that is bigger than yours too. They're hermaphrodites so Giant East African Snails of equal size can have male-female / female-male sex at the same time and it takes them over two hours to get it done.
Of some interest to me are the well-intentioned but ultimately stupid government blunders in managing these creatures. They were introduced as a food source in some South Pacific islands but, imagine my surprise, some escaped and then spread all over the place. Since a government will never fail to follow one stupid move with another one, they introduced a carnivorous snail (i.e. a snail that eats other snails) but this didn't go well either as they ate a native species of snail and wiped it out in about ten years.
To control these creatures, flamethrowers have been tried. Did not work.
Still laughing, honey bunny?? (laughs)
However, I wouldn't smirk too loudly as America has a new friend in the Giant East African Snail (Achatina fulica). CNN reports on it as the Giant African Snail (Achatina achatina) but it's more likely to be the East African variety which has made a new home in Florida. (CNN: It's real: attack of the giant African snails in Florida)
We have just GOT to see a picture of this little friend:
These aren't just big, they're gigantic and can be up to twenty centimeters / eight inches long. According to CNN, the shell is so sharp it can puncture a car tire. I'll leave it to your imagination what it sounds like / feels like when you squish one.
These creatures are hugely-invasive, hugely-destructive, and multiply at incredible speed so, naturally, some whackjobs keep them as pets. No, I am not kidding. Whether these are the same whackjobs (who prefer to be called eccentric) as the ones who keep the giant centipedes is something I really don't want to know except to alert me that they live in houses I would never want to visit. There is some thinking that it was pets released into the wild that started the infestation. (Wiki: Achatina fulica)
If you're interested in a molluscian sexual tingle, you might want to read the Wiki as that is bigger than yours too. They're hermaphrodites so Giant East African Snails of equal size can have male-female / female-male sex at the same time and it takes them over two hours to get it done.
Of some interest to me are the well-intentioned but ultimately stupid government blunders in managing these creatures. They were introduced as a food source in some South Pacific islands but, imagine my surprise, some escaped and then spread all over the place. Since a government will never fail to follow one stupid move with another one, they introduced a carnivorous snail (i.e. a snail that eats other snails) but this didn't go well either as they ate a native species of snail and wiped it out in about ten years.
To control these creatures, flamethrowers have been tried. Did not work.
Still laughing, honey bunny?? (laughs)
2 comments:
Large numbers of exotic species were introduced into the South Florida eco-system after Hurricane Andrew wiped out the zoos in Homestead and the surrounding businesses that import animals into the US
This is not to take away from the morons who have done so much damage from the release of non native species i.e. silver carp, the franken fish multiple snake species (in Hawaii may end up eliminating multiple native bird species
or the increase to the wild pig populations in the souheast
When will.man.learn he is not smarter than Mother Nature
There are endless numbers willing to dispute that ... but they always get it wrong.
One of my favorite for idiotic tampering with the environment was a predator introduced into Hawaii that was to eat some varmint. There was one small problem: the predator was nocturnal and the varmint was not so they never even saw each other. Yep, it ended up eating something else.
Starlings were introduced into the US because some wiseguy thought all the creatures in Shakespeare should be represented. Now there are billions of them in the US and they're disappearing for who knows what reason in the UK.
The list of this stuff goes on and on!
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