Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Authorities are asking Houston residents to be wary of giant African land snails, because they could be carrying a deadly strain of meningitis, NBC News reported Tuesday.
A local woman found one of the large mollusks, which can grow up to eight inches long, in her back yard and took a photo of it.
"Unfortunately, humans are picking the snails up," Dr. Autumn J. Smith-Herron, the director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at Sam Houston State University told KPRC in Houston. "They carry a parasitic disease that can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death."
The snails are originally from East Africa and can lay 1,200 eggs a year, which makes them particularly invasive on American soil.
According to a report from the state of Michigan, a Miami boy brought three snails to the country in 1966. There were more than 18,000 of them in Florida seven years later.
Read More
- Florida battles invasive giant snails
- Giant African snail 'humanely destroyed' by Australian biosecurity officers
- Snail shells yield ancient climate clues
- China's pollution putting 'pink dolphins' in danger
- 12-year-old calls out law-breaking cop for illegal parking job
- Single mom's lotto mistake accidentally wins her $14 million