Snails On A Plain!

Have you heard about the giant African snails that are taking over Barbados? Here's an article about it:

A breed of giant, ravenous snails that first appeared in Barbados five years ago has thrived on the tropical island, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate the slimy pests.A nocturnal "snail hunt" last weekend reported finding hundreds of thousands of giant African snails swarming the central parish of St. George, the country's agricultural heartland where farmers had complained of damage to crops including sugar cane, bananas and papayas.

"We saw snails riding on each other's backs and moving in clusters," said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office that organized 60 volunteers for the hunt. "You're just crunching the shells as you're walking through."

The volunteers sprayed government-supplied pesticides in gullies and other cool, low-lying areas where the snails are believed to breed, venturing out after dark to catch the snails as they emerge from spending the day underground. Walrond's brigade plans to continue its assault over the next three weekends.The snails, which are about the size of a human hand, are known to consume as many as 500 different plants and their mucous can transmit meningitis and other diseases.

I like this guy talking about the snails like they're enemy combatants. I can imagine it must have been pretty intimidating to see them riding on each other's backs and moving in clusters. It's a good thing they have a 'brigade'. Must be a pretty tough fight for these guys; 'Don't let 'em get away, boys!'

I kind of wonder if this is some kind of secret war against Barbados by one of the other Caribbean nations due to Barbados' high ranking in the developing countries and its popularity as a tourism spot. It's got one of the highest standards of living and literacy rates in the developing countries. Interestingly, Japan and Barbados are the two countries with the highest per capita rates of centenarians in the world.