Are you aware of the latest news regarding the Giant African Land Snail program in Florida? The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry (FDACS-DPI) and the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA-APHIS-PPQ) are working hard to prevent the Giant African Land Snail’s establishment in the continental U.S.

A toll-free number is available to report snail sightings to FDACS-DPI: 1-888-397-1517.

The FDACS-DPI Giant African Land Snail page is available at: http://www.freshfromflorida.com/pi/gals/

Educators interested in ready-to-go information on the Giant African Land Snail can download a scripted presentation (-script includes detailed speaker notes with reference background information) on the Protect U.S. website http://www.protectingusnow.org/ . Go to ‘scripted presentations.’ Authors of the scripted presentation are Stocks (UF), White-McClean (FDACS-DPI), and Hodges (UF). Presentations on Protect U.S. are periodically updated as appropriate. A link to an interactive, e-learning module is also provided on the Protect U.S. site. The Protect U.S. project is co-coordinated by the University of Florida and the University of Illinois, and is a National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) and Regional IPM Center partner project. The formation of Protect U.S. was funded by the 10201 Farm Bill.

UF-IFAS also has a Featured Creatures on Giant African Land Snail (authors Capinera and White-McLean http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/gastro/terrestrial_snails.htm ).

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