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A "baseball-sized" giant African snail A "baseball-sized" giant African snail that was found in Australia has been killed by country officials who say the animal posed a mammoth threat to local flora. "Giant African snails are one of the world's largest and most damaging land snails," Paul Nixon, acting regional manager at Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, said in a statement, according to the Brisbane Times. "Australia’s strict biosecurity requirements and responsive system has so far kept these pests out of Australia and we want to keep it that way." According to Australia's ABC News, the large mollusk was recently found "crawling across the concrete at a Brisbane container yard." Seized and later identified as a giant African snail by entomologists, the animal has been "humanely destroyed" by biosecurity officers. Native to East Africa, giant African snails are considered by the

Workers from Florida’s Department of Agriculture are fighting a slimy and dangerous enemy: giant African land snails that have invaded a residential area in Miami-Dade County. “We have collected over a thousand so far and we have only just begun,” said Denise Feiber, Public Information Director for Florida’s Division of Plant Industry. Florida Department of Agriculture/Division of Plant Industry Investigators aren’t sure when or how the invaders slithered into town, but they are on a mission to eradicate the snails as fast as possible.  Giant African land snails can grow to be as long as 8 inches and consume at least 500 different types of plants.  They also destroy stucco and plaster. “They leave excrement all over the sides of houses. They’re very nasty,” Feiber said.  “These things are not the cute little snails that you see.” They also pose a health risk by carrying a parasite that can cause meningitis in humans. Officials realized they had a problem on their hands last