African Land Snail questions.

[DubiaW]

What are the laws concerning African Land Snails? Are they only illegal to import or are they outright illegal to own? I really want one of these.

 

[Hisserdude]

What are the laws concerning African Land Snails? Are they only illegal to import or are they outright illegal to own? I really want one of these.

I believe they are outright illegal to own, could be wrong though.

 

[DubiaW]

That's what I am being told on another forum. They have already been introduced in Florida. It seems a little ridiculous to hand out fines for housing an animal that already lives outside. I live in AZ so it is impossible for it to live in the wild here. It seems stupid and wrong but so many laws in this country are.

 

[DubiaW]

Do you know if their are educational permits given for this species?

 

[Serpyderpy]

Do you know if their are educational permits given for this species?

Nope. These snails have been seized from classrooms and other educational settings before, I don't think they'll give you a permit.

They live invasively and are constantly being removed from the local wildlife due to how destructive they are against crops for people to eat, they are easily infected, they can cause major hazards on the road and they stink to high heaven when they die and rot. They are 'known' (I use that in quotation marks since it's speculated) to carry a nematode that causes meningitis, I think a big concern is that they'll end up within the food chain and pass that nematode on to mammals and perhaps livestock that'll slowly find it's way to your plate. They also breed insanely fast and produce thousands of little babies, over one thousand a year. They can survive in colder and arid climates by burrowing under the ground and protecting themselves with membrane. I think the idea of keeping them in captivity means, to the officials who deal with this stuff, you're propogating the species. They in part became invasive due to them arriving in shipments and also due to people who released them into the wild. If it started with people who had them in captivity, I doubt they want people to keep them.

I am sure there are people who live in the US that have them but won't say a thing, because otherwise that means a knock on your door. These snails can live upwards of ten years when properly cared for, it's insane how many eggs one snail could lay in their life, and considering they're hermaphrodites, that's two fertilized snails that'll pop out about two thousand eggs respectively in one go. It is a shame that people who are responsible want to own them but you have the people who let them go to thank for their impact now.

 

[DubiaW]

Nope. These snails have been seized from classrooms and other educational settings before, I don't think they'll give you a permit.

They live invasively and are constantly being removed from the local wildlife due to how destructive they are against crops for people to eat, they are easily infected, they can cause major hazards on the road and they stink to high heaven when they die and rot. They are 'known' (I use that in quotation marks since it's speculated) to carry a nematode that causes meningitis, I think a big concern is that they'll end up within the food chain and pass that nematode on to mammals and perhaps livestock that'll slowly find it's way to your plate. They also breed insanely fast and produce thousands of little babies, over one thousand a year. They can survive in colder and arid climates by burrowing under the ground and protecting themselves with membrane. I think the idea of keeping them in captivity means, to the officials who deal with this stuff, you're propogating the species. They in part became invasive due to them arriving in shipments and also due to people who released them into the wild. If it started with people who had them in captivity, I doubt they want people to keep them.

I am sure there are people who live in the US that have them but won't say a thing, because otherwise that means a knock on your door. These snails can live upwards of ten years when properly cared for, it's insane how many eggs one snail could lay in their life, and considering they're hermaphrodites, that's two fertilized snails that'll pop out about two thousand eggs respectively in one go. It is a shame that people who are responsible want to own them but you have the people who let them go to thank for their impact now.

Didn't know they were possible carriers of meningitis.

 

[schmiggle]

Even though they probably can't survive long-term in Arizona, there's always the concern of you travelling state to state. I don't believe Florida does car searches on the border.

 

[Galapoheros]

Didn't know they were possible carriers of meningitis.

It's a scare tactic imo. These snails are edible and they can pick up a disease that causes meningitis if the snails come in contact and eat rat frass that is infected with the organism. Is that organism even found in the US?, I don't know. And how often does one of these come in contact with rat poo anyway, maybe more than we think but not in captivity. And if a snail is infected and cooked thoroughly before eaten, you've killed the organism anyway and won't have any problems "eating it". And if you have a live one that is infected, if it's inside the snail, how hard would it be to get infected from it? I don't like the risk whatever it is but when you think about, if they are captive born, infection is impossible unless an infected rat comes in your house. And people keep rats as pets, why is that not a big deal, why aren't rats so scary if they carry this organism? Yeah, scare tactic imo. I'd like to keep them also but it's a law that is strictly enforced and I live where they could probably survive. These snails and most non-native beetles, they will come knocking on your door for them, there are a few posts about it.

 

[Aquarimax]

What are the laws concerning African Land Snails? Are they only illegal to import or are they outright illegal to own? I really want one of these.

These snails are extremely common on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, where I lived for three years. I found them quite fascinating, as did my kids, though we never attempted to keep one.

Once I was walking towards a building before sunrise. At some distance away, the light from the building illuminated a shoe on the walkway that surrounded the building. As I got closer, i realized the shoe-sized object was really a gargantuan snail, the biggest African land snail I had ever seen.

In Hawaii, they tried eliminating these huge snails by introducing a predatory snail. The latter ended up going after the smaller, native tree snails, which are now all endangered, if not extinct.

 

[DubiaW]

These snails are extremely common on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, where I lived for three years. I found them quite fascinating, as did my kids, though we never attempted to keep one.

Once I was walking towards a building before sunrise. At some distance away, the light from the building illuminated a shoe on the walkway that surrounded the building. As I got closer, i realized the shoe-sized object was really a gargantuan snail, the biggest African land snail I had ever seen.

In Hawaii, they tried eliminating these huge snails by introducing a predatory snail. The latter ended up going after the smaller, native tree snails, which are now all endangered, if not extinct.

That is really sad. Humans have had pretty bad luck trying to introduce species to solve problems, from Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass) in the planes of the western US to the brown snakes in Guam, we suck. How will the parasitic flies kill the fire ants without killing less pervasive species off first? Let's just guess shall we. Emperical evidence will come afterward.