{"id":62576,"date":"2026-07-04T11:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=62576"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:40:56","slug":"giant-african-snail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/giant-african-snail\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant African Snail"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Giant African Snail Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The invasive giant African snail (Lissachatina fulica) is spreading rapidly across Tirunavaya panchayat and has now entered school campuses and is raising health concerns for children in Kerala.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Giant African Snail<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the common name for several <\/span><b>large African land snail species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 The most damaging of these pests is<\/span><b> Lissachatina fulica.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the <\/span><b>world\u2019s worst invasive species.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is known to eat more than <\/span><b>500 types of crops and ornamental plants.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>native to East Africa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but it has been widely introduced to other parts of the world through the pet trade, as a food resource, and by accidental introduction.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It <\/span><b>thrives in warm tropical climates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with mild temperatures all year round and high humidity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is found in <\/span><b>agricultural areas,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> coastal areas and wetlands, natural and planted forests, riparian zones, scrublands and shrublands, and the urban zones.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Food:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Mature, adult snails generally feed on <\/span><b>decaying organic matter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including garbage, fallen fruit and animal manure.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Key Features<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>is a hermaphrodite<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adult snails are very large with a long, <\/span><b>narrow, cone-shaped shell.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shell is usually 50 to 100 millimetres long but can reach up to 200 millimetres.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shell is usually light brown with darker brown vertical stripes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Health Impact:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The snails can carry the <\/span><b>rat lungworm parasite<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Angiostrongylus cantonensis), which can <\/span><b>cause eosinophilic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> meningitis in humans.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/giant-african-snails-enter-school-campuses-in-tirunavaya-raising-health-concerns-for-children\/article71166599.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giant African Snail  is one of the world\u2019s worst invasive species. Read more about Giant African Snail, Habitat, Food, Health Impact, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":62584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2577],"class_list":["post-62576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-giant-african-snail","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111321,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62576\/revisions\/111321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}