Giant African Land Snails, which are being used increasingly in science lessons, are illegal in the continental United States. They are highly invasive and rapidly reproductive and cause extensive damage to food crops and other agricultural and natural resources.
Giant African Land Snails can also pose a risk to human health. For information go to the Center for Disease Control website at http://www.cdc.gov.
The U. S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service encourages those with the snails--either in the classroom or at home as pets—to voluntarily turn them in without penalty.
Giant African Land Snails should not be released into the environment or given away. Instead, anyone possessing or knowing the whereabouts of such snails should report them to the Arkansas Division of Plant Industry at 1-888-703-4457 (a toll free hotline) or calling Paul Shell or Terry Walker at 501-225-1598. Additional assistance is available from the U. S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Little Rock, Arkansas, by calling Joe Bard at 501-324-5258.
Websites for additional information are http://www.aphis.usda.gov/npb/npbmemb.htm#Members , http://www.ceris.purdue.edu/napis/names/sphdXstate.html, and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/permits.plantpest/snails_slugs.html.
Giant African Land Snail is the common name used to describe any of three snail species native to Africa and considered serious agricultural pests in the United States. The Giant African Land Snail (Achatina fulica), the Giant Ghana Tiger Snail (Achatina achatina), and Margies (Archacatina marginata) are large, terrestrial snails that may be as large as 8 inches (20 cm) in length and 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter—about the size of an adult fist. Their shells are brownish with darker brown vertical stripes and cover about half the length of the snail.
Giant African Snails are known to eat at least 500 different types of plants, including peanuts, beans, peas, cucumbers, and melons as well as a variety of ornamental plants, tree bark, and even paint and stucco.
These snails are prolific, laying as many as 100 to 400 eggs in a single session and up to 1,200 eggs in a year. Snails contain both mail and female reproductive organs.
Ideally, snails collected locally can be used to teach native fauna, and their use does not require a permit. The U. S. Department of Agriculture is reviewing each state’s permit procedures for educational use of exotic mollusks.