Harmful snail targeted by state officials

Nurseries safe, but pest still chews up neighborhood lawns

More than 6,000 horntail snails have been plucked from the ground in South Florida, in what the state agriculture department describes as a successful campaign to eliminate the non-native pest from commercial nurseries.

The snail with a dimesized shell was discovered in 2020 in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, and since then, state inspectors, nursery workers and homeowners have found them across much of Miami-Dade County, all the way down to Florida City.

No one knows how it got to Florida. Although it’s unlikely to be eliminated completely, the Florida Department of Agriculture says it has now been cleared from nurseries, to which it had constituted the biggest threat.

“The pest is now established in the environs in Miami-Dade County and has been eradicated from all commercial nurseries in Florida,” the department said in a statement this week.

Three months ago state officials declared victory over another non-native mollosk, the giant African

land snail, a fist-sized mollusk that could chew its way across gardens and farms, with an appetite that even extended to stucco walls. That snail, found in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, was eradicated after years of work.

The horntail snail, which is dwarfed by its African cousin, has not been eradicated in Florida and has become established in backyards, front yards and other places with the sort of plants it likes to eat.

The state does not plan to try to wipe it out the way it has the giant African snail. The horntail snail is primarily a threat to nurseries, where it has been eliminated, said Christina Chitty, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“The giant African land snail has literally been a threat on every level, a human health threat, a threat to agriculture, a threat to the environment,” she said. “The horntail snail is mostly attacking the nurseries and landscaping.”

The number of horntail snails removed totaled 6,776 by last June, according to the Florida Department of

Agriculture, which stopped counting once the snail was gone from commercial nurseries.

Native to India, the horntail snail is a notorious agricultural pest with an undiscriminating palate, capable of consuming a wide range of plants.

Although the snail has been discovered only in Miami-Dade County, the search-and-destroy campaign has extended to nurseries in Collier, Broward and Palm Beach counties, with inspections expected to continue indefinitely.

South Florida is home to a vast range of non-native species, from the Burmese python to the less spectacular but probably more damaging Formosan termite.

These non-native reptiles, insects, fish and plants arrived via the exotic pet trade, on wood pallets, in produce shipments and through other means.

Named for a pointy protrusion at the tip of its tail, the snail can be found in cool, damp areas, such as under flower pots. During hot, dry periods, it burrows underground.

CONTRIBUTED A horntail snail.