The giant African snail damages buildings, destroys crops and can cause meningitis in humans. But some people still want to collect, and even eat, the slimy invaders.
The U.S. Agriculture Department is trying to stop them. Since June, department authorities have seized more than 1,200 live specimens of the snails, also known as giant African land snails, all of them traced back to one person in Georgia who was selling them illegally.
The USDA discovered the snails through a tip from social media at the end of June. From that tip, the department seized more than 200 snails from a person on Long Island, New York, who identified the seller in Georgia. The department then interviewed the seller and seized almost 1,000 more snails in Georgia, plus one each in Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York.