I remember when those snails invaded bombay in the 80s. saw one or two, and then they were suddenly everywhere. it was amazing how fast it happened.
Gift link:<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/10/giant-african-snails-florida-invasion/688850/?gift=eKUtrZynxFJ4xrXiS7sXWm4LQEkwrCNuhj_xxtnEnrg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/10/giant-african-sn...</a>
The salt river northeast of Phoenix has been infested with apple snails from central america - they get up to 6" or so. The forest service regularly runs events where people in kayaks and on paddle boards help clear that section of river of the clumps of eggs.
Small snails look cute but 8-inch snail sounds a bit scary. Also how do they avoid being eaten by predators if they are slow and vulnerable?<p>Also I recently saw small slugs which were crawling on the sidewalk along with worms who get to the surface after rain. I wonder what those slugs were planning to do given its middle of October and temperature is merely 10°C (50F)?
Some things eat them like opossum and foxes, but the snails spread bad parasites so animals might learn to avoid them.<p>They can fertilize themselves so you only need one. And they lay 1600 or so eggs a year in batches of around 200.<p>They are breeding machines.
<i>"but 8-inch snail sounds a bit scary"</i><p>Avoid Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
My personal favourite parasite is the human botfly:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatobia_hominis" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatobia_hominis</a><p>This bastard is a fascinating one. I mean there are others, but this one is close to my heart.
> The snails, which actually grow to about eight inches in length, but can stretch—if nothing else, for headline-writing purposes—to nine inches, have worried Florida authorities since 1969.<p>Delightfully self-aware.
Excellent headline and graphic
We should get Trent Reznor's opinion on these.
paywall.