Slimy, Meningitis-Carrying Snails Still Infesting Coral Gables

CORAL GABLES (CBSMiami) — Coral Gables continues to deal with a plant-eating pest.

A population of giant African land snails was identified one year ago in the area, and an update on the effort to rid Coral Gables of the snails is expected Wednesday.

The particular type of snail is a major plant pest with a host range of more than 500 plants making it a formidable agricultural and urban landscape pest.

It's tough to rid Coral Gables of the pest, because it reproduces rapidly and has no natural enemies.

The snail might as well be our enemy: it can harbor a microscopic rat lung worm, which can transmit a form of meningitis to humans.

In response to the snail find last year, federal and state agriculture officials immediately established a program office and continued to survey, collect and apply snail bait to areas surrounding positive properties.

Over 77,000 snails have been collected on 340 positive properties in 17 core areas of Miami-Dade County. The giant African land snail has not been found outside of the county.

Over 85% of new snail cores were reported to the Department's helpline by the public.