Gastropods · Stylommatophora · Achatinidae

Giant African Snail

Lissachatina fulica

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The giant African snail is a land snail of the family Achatinidae, in the order Stylommatophora. These snails are frequently found in gardens and crops, where they feed on various plants, sometimes becoming pests of economic importance.

Size

5 cm – 20 cm

Lifespan

6 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

RainforestHerbivore Nocturnal Solitary Rainforest Mollusc

106countries 51parks

Fun facts

It is on the IUCN list of the 100 most damaging invasive alien species in the world.
It is hermaphroditic: two individuals fertilise each other and both lay eggs, and a single pair can produce hundreds of offspring in a year.
It can transmit the nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which causes eosinophilic meningitis in humans, so it should not be handled without washing your hands afterwards.
In the dry season it seals the shell opening with a sheet of hardened mucus and goes dormant.
It appears on the IUCN list of the hundred worst invasive species in the world.
It eats almost anything: it prefers decomposing vegetation, lichens and fungi, but it has been recorded on hundreds of plant species, and masses of snails can raze an entire seedbed in a single night.
Its health risk is the most serious part: it is an intermediate host of the nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the rat lungworm, which causes eosinophilic meningitis in people. Infection comes from eating raw or undercooked snails, or vegetables contaminated with their slime.
It was almost always introduced on purpose: as food, as a pet, for educational purposes or for rearing. It is a textbook case of invasion by the deliberate route.
Its size helps explain the problem: its shell reaches 20 cm and it lays several hundred eggs per clutch, with several clutches a year.
It is a hermaphrodite, and a single individual is enough to found a population if it has already been fertilised.
Florida managed to eradicate it twice, most recently with the lifting of the quarantine in 2021 after years of campaigning; it is one of the few successful eradications of an invasive mollusc.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Invertebrate - external calcareous shell (mollusc)
Habitat & environment: Humid tropical areas: crops, gardens and forest edges
Sexual maturity: 5-8 months
Gestation / incubation: 11-15 days
Litter / clutch size: 100-400 eggs per clutch, with several clutches a year
Lifespan in captivity: Up to 9 years

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissachatina_fulica