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Dangerous Giant Snails Spotted in Texas [VIDEO]

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: May 08, 2013 01:54 PM EDT

With the weathers warming up and summer almost arriving, people are gearing up for hurricane season and the onslaught of pesky mosquitoes. To add on to these already troublesome factors, people in Texas might have one more thing on their plates. According to NBC news, a woman from Briar Forest in Houston, TX, discovered a snail that was far from home. She found an enlarged snail in her garden and took a picture of it. The picture revealed that the snail is in fact the Giant African land snail, which is a pretty dangerous species. Although no one knows how the snail got to the state, measures are being taken to prevent the species' population from growing rapidly.

The Giant African land snails, scientifically known as the Lissachatina fulica, are considered to be dangerous and people residing in Texas have been warned against picking up these snails or touching them. These snails can grow up to be eight inches in length and around five inches in diameter. They can also reproduce nearly 1,200 eggs a year, which is why controlling these snails early on is vital in preventing harm to both the local ecosystems and humans.

"Scientists consider the giant African snail...to be one of the most damaging snails in the world. It is known to eat at least 500 different types of plants," the TexasInvasives.org website wrote.

"They also carry a parasitic disease that can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death," the director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at the Sam Houston State University, Autumn Smith-Herron, added.

In the meantime, officials are investigating whether or not the snails have indeed invaded Texas.

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