 LOS ANGELES, July 14 (Reuters) - U.S. customs inspectors at Los Angeles International Airport seized a shipment of several dozen live giant African snails, considered a delicacy in Nigeria but also voracious pests that can eat paint and stucco off houses, officials said on Monday. Weighing nearly 2 pounds (0.9 kg) each, including their shells, and measuring about 6 inches (15 cm) in length, the 67 snails arrived from Lagos, Nigeria, in two plastic baskets with paperwork describing them as being for human consumption, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said. CBP officials stated that they submitted an urgent sample to the United States Department of Agriculture plant protection and quarantine entomologists, where a specialist in Washington, D.C., identified them as giant African snails. According to USDA officials, these snails are native to Africa and can grow to about 8 inches long, 5 inches wide and live to be 10 years old. They are commonly referred to as giant African land snail, banana rasp snail, margie, West African snail and West African land snail, authorities said. But the creatures are prohibited from entry because they are deemed a highly invasive pest that pose a serious threat to U.S. agriculture, the environment and public health, the agency said. They also can carry several parasites harmful to humans, including one that can lead to meningitis, Harty said.
– A slow-moving Nigerian delicacy was stopped at Los Angeles International Airport when 67 giant land snails were discovered packed in picnic baskets, authorities said yesterday. The live African snails—which can grow to be 8 inches long, 5 inches wide, and live to be 10 years old—arrived with paperwork stating they were for human consumption, but federal authorities say they are a damaging, invasive species, reports CBS. "The significant interception of giant African snails is the first time this pest has been encountered in such large quantity and as a consumption entry" in Los Angeles, a Customs and Border Protection official says. The snails, which carry a parasite that can give humans meningitis, are known to consume more than 500 kinds of plants and USDA officials say they will even eat the paint and stucco off houses when there's no other food around, the Los Angeles Times notes. The snails are generally fried as a snack but the shipment seized at LAX was turned over to the USDA and then incinerated, reports Reuters. Florida has been battling an infestation of the snails for years and has caught more than 100,000 of them.