Recently, citizens in Nanning, Guangxi, discovered some giant snails in the park. After identification, they were giant African land snails (Lissachatina fulica) - a delicacy on the plate, but one of the most harmful snails in the world.
Delicious food from Africa
The giant African land snail has an adult diameter of about 7 cm and a length of 20 cm or more, making it one of the largest land snails in existence.
The color of their shells depends on what the snail usually eats, and species vary greatly from one species to another, but generally, brown is the predominant color.
Giant African land snails, like almost all lung gastropods, are hermaphroditic (having both sexual organs at the same time). Although hermaphroditism does not mean that you can have children by yourself, but as long as you meet another, you can have children with each other. They mate and exchange sperm with each other, and the transferred sperm can be stored in the body for up to two years.
Therefore, it can be said that their reproductive ability is super strong, and each snail can lay 1000-1200 eggs per year on average.
With their large heads and strong reproductive capabilities, they have always been an important source of animal protein for local people in their hometown in Africa. After seeing their commercial breeding value, they were introduced to our country as early as the last century. Most of the fried snails on our table are made of them.
Meningitis-inducing invasive species
However, when they escape into the wild and enter our ecosystem, this species has no natural enemies (the population can be controlled by Aeromonas hydrophila ), and the potential for population growth will make it a A serious pest.
This large snail, which grows to the size of a fist, eats a variety of plants, fruits, vegetables, lichens and fungi, causing damage to the environment.
In addition to plants, buildings can also be damaged. They will eat sand, very small rocks, bones, paint or stucco from buildings, and even concrete as a source of calcium for their shells.
Worse still, they sometimes carry rat lungworm, a parasite known to cause meningitis in humans. There have been many cases of domestic dogs dying from rat lungworm infection after eating snails.
Therefore, anyone who comes into contact with snails (including slugs) in the wild should wear gloves and wash their hands. If you find it, call and report it to the local gardening department. Don't catch it yourself or let your children play with it.
A large number of these giant African land snails appear after rain
These giant African land snails will appear in large numbers after rain.
The reason is that they, like many snails, have a self-protective characteristic: in the case of drought, giant African land snails seal themselves in their shells by secreting a calcium compound, and they can "aestivate" for up to Three years of waiting for the rain to come.
written at the end
they are indeed edible if cooked properly. Once it gets into the wild, it's a bad invasive species. For invasive species, even if there is no danger of parasites, let alone the operation of "eating them out".
It is not advisable to promote the elimination of harmful organisms in this way. If there is a demand, more people will deliberately raise them. If they are not raised well and thrown away, it will cause further harmful spread.
So, report it and leave it to the professionals. However, maybe the professionals will also get it done [laughing and crying]
The author thanks you for your attention (¬_¬)
