Florida Once Again Has Giant Calamitous Snails That Spew Parasitic Brain Worms (arstechnica.com) 66
Officials in Florida are again battling a highly invasive, extraordinarily destructive giant snail species that also happens to be capable of spreading parasitic worms that invade human brains. From a report: The giant African land snail (GALS) -- aka Lissachatina fulica -- can grow up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) long and is considered "one of the most invasive pests on the planet," according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. It ravenously feasts on over 500 plant species -- including many valuable fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals -- while prolifically spawning, pushing out several thousand eggs in its multiyear life span.
In late June, Florida state officials confirmed the presence of GALS on a property in Pasco County, on the west-central coast of the state, just north of Tampa. They have since set up a quarantine zone around the property and began snail-killing pesticide treatments last week. While the snails are a grave threat to agriculture and natural vegetation in the state, the invasive mollusks also pose a health risk. They're known to transmit rat lungworm parasites, which can invade the human central nervous system and cause a type of meningitis. For this reason, officials warn people not to handle the mammoth snails without gloves.
In late June, Florida state officials confirmed the presence of GALS on a property in Pasco County, on the west-central coast of the state, just north of Tampa. They have since set up a quarantine zone around the property and began snail-killing pesticide treatments last week. While the snails are a grave threat to agriculture and natural vegetation in the state, the invasive mollusks also pose a health risk. They're known to transmit rat lungworm parasites, which can invade the human central nervous system and cause a type of meningitis. For this reason, officials warn people not to handle the mammoth snails without gloves.
Look I get it (Score:5, Funny)
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I am looking forward to the bloodbath that will be the GOP primary between the two of them.
DeSantis has had it easy peasy. The right-wing media just fawns over him and he has a legislature that will pass anything he wants. He's barely had to show any political cunning at all, just feed meat to his base. He's softer than the perception of him and Trump doesn't like him and Trump loves a fight
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DeSantis will be worse.
He could probably actually carry out what Trump tried to do.
Re: Look I get it (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: Look I get it (Score:4, Informative)
Really, you're trying to use unemployment numbers caused by lockdowns pushed by every single Democrat out there? That's what you're going with? I mean, sure, that might be convincing to complete morons like yourself, but really?
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I get the fascism seems like a good idea when it's your guy but remember your guy's going to die someday and when he does he's going to get replaced and probably not by somebody you like. Or worse your guy isn't going to die, he's going to be like Vladimir Putin who lives so lo
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Democratic Governors lost those jobs when they shut down their states. That had nothing to do with Trump, just like the recovery has nothing to do with Biden.
Had the Dems done what they were told by Trump from the beginning, and not worked against him, we could have likely avoided most of the pain, instead, you had people like Pelosi encouraging people to go out to public events, and Cuomo doing the same, and passing idiotic laws putting sick people back into nursing homes where they killed a large proport
Yep. This. So much this. (Score:1, Insightful)
I mean there was a time when Pol pot and Mao Zedong were both just little kids. Same with Stalin.
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Hitler was once just a frustrated art student who couldn't sell his paintings. Remember that next time you see a haunting of goths.
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The examination jury of the Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts who had rejected Mr. Hitler's application twice, must have felt very, very bad in the following decades.
Re:Look I get it (Score:5, Informative)
God, I hope so!!
I mean, prior to covid, the former administration had the US economy strong and running on all cylinders, unemployment was at all time low (especially for minorities)...stock market was doing gangbusters, we were becoming energy independent.
Yeah, while I don't care much for Trump the person, I really enjoyed most of his administrations' policies.
I'm surprised he was able to do as much as he did the first 3x years, while having the whole time to fight the false narrative that he was in collusion with Russia, etc....that has since been shown to have started based on the false document from the Clinton campaign and used by govt agencies to promote more false claims and witch-hunts.
They need to be investigating Schiff as part of all that...he knew it was false.
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This is how we all fail.
We never educate our citizens anymore, in fact going to great lengths to ensure that they DO NOT get educated at all past high school. Uneducated people can easily be convinced that drinking poison is actually a good thing...because they don't know any better. They can be easily emotionally swayed in whatever way you wish, because they were never taught to think logically or critically. There's a reason it was forbidden to educate slaves....it made it harder to keep them as slaves.
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You really think people would vote for Trump again? I mean, aside of the losers that see him as their personal saviour?
Re:Look I get it (Score:4, Interesting)
Trump brings voter turnout. He gets people excited to vote and participate in the political process. That's what makes Trump essential to the Republican party. The Republican Party basically told the American people during the worst disaster since world War II to suck it down and go die for Wall Street. That should have ended the Republican party and yet they managed to hold on to more than enough seats in the Senate to stop Joe Biden from doing anything substantial.
They owe all of that to Donald Trump and they know it. That's why they haven't completely shut him out of the party. They need not his endorsements but the excitement and the voter turnout he brings. He gets people to the polls and then they vote down ticket for republicans
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Trump becomes more and more a Sorcerer's Apprentice problem for the GOP. The spirits that I summoned I now cannot rid myself of again. Trump was supposed to be an easily controlled figurehead that gets the dumb masses excited to vote. Because, well, the GOP has a rather severe problem: They have to present decoy topics because their actual agenda (i.e. making the rich richer) will net them maybe 1% of the votes. So they have to pander to the Christian loonies and the "USA, USA" chanters and of course the co
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Your comment gives me an idea. I wonder if this is the wedge needed for us to ditch first-past-the-post. That would be the one (the only?) good thing to come out of this scenario.
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It would certainly open up the political landscape of the US and be a sensible step away from the two-party stranglehold, because a FPTP System will always, almost invariably, lead to a two party system. It took a civil war to end the former one, only to result in a new one.
The question is, though, whether you will get a majority for something like this. Because the only ones that could change it are also the only ones who would lose from changing it.
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You really think people would vote for Trump again? I mean, aside of the losers that see him as their personal saviour?
In a microsecond....perhaps even less than that. Hell, we like them so much that even when they failed at *TREASON* we basically let them off by only punishing a select few of the group. No worries folks, I'm sure they'd never try that again!
In some ways I think we actually deserve the hell we're going through. Seems like nothing is ever enough to push the people to actually get together and push for a productive change that benefits the 99% instead of the 1% that currently owns the country. Mind you, appar
Re: Look I get it (Score:1)
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Re: Look I get it (Score:1)
Welcome to Slashdot, where political agendas abound and the points dont matter
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What is controversial about DeSantis being wildly popular in Florida, and Bernie and Biden not? That is a fact, you can look up the polling yourself.
Citation:
https://www.termlimits.com/wp-... [termlimits.com]
The guy is even liked by more Democrats than dislike him.
Meanwhile, nationwide, Biden has a ~33% approval rating.
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Nearly every single post for this story should actually be down modded as offtopic, considering they are all about politics and not about parasitic brain worm spewing snails.
However, there's not much to say about parasitic brain snails in and of themselves, and politics and politicians in general are of course too irresistible a target for comparison to them.
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Florida huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems so on brand. Come for the overt racism and erosion of civil rights, stay for the brain worms.
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Just ban the sale or import.
This strikes me as racist.
Why should some snails get a chance at a better life but not others?
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But... those giant brain-infecting snails are just soooo cute... /s
I'm assuming you're talking about some other invasive species, not these specifically? Or at least, damn, I hope not. I know this is a problem in horticulture, ornamental landscaping in particular. [earth.com]
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Once again, I vastly overestimate humanity. [youtube.com]
You'd think I'd eventually learn.
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We are full and that is not helping the rent issues around here at all.
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You didn't make the obvious "Now we know the origin of Florida Man"?
Giant snails with brain worms in Florida. The creation of the Florida Man. I think there might be a relationship between the two things.
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Floridians aren't worse than anyone anywhere else. We just have this "sunshine law" that means all the weird shit goes directly to the media. You apparently don't, so you might be more interested in whatever madness your own state is so very eager to cover up.
Don't worry, the DeathSentence guy will try to have that law removed as soon as possible. It tells you far more truth about people than he ever wanted to be clear.
Those poor brain worms (Score:4, Funny)
Parasitic worms that invade human brains? In Florida?
They'll starve!
Come on... seriously?? (Score:2)
With all the crap that is going on, do we really need parasitic worms from giant snails? At this rate this is literally turning into Elden Ring.... *sigh*
Game over man! (Score:4, Funny)
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.
It's the only way to be sure.
Zombie apocalypse (Score:2)
Revelations? (Score:1)
Can someone remind me which seal the giant snail with brain-worms was in Revelations? It's been a while since I've brushed up on my biblical lore, and I can't for the life of me remember that being mentioned, but I'm absolutely certain it must be in there someplace.
Maybe it falls under Pestilence? So, we're gettin' on with the Four Horsemen, eh? Cool. Anything we can do to hurry the process up? Kinda tired of this carousel of madness.
I for one... (Score:5, Funny)
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someworm?
Florida Man: There's an explanation now (Score:3, Funny)
Re:parasites (Score:4, Informative)
Oh people are grooming children alright. Most of them are fans of Jesus and vote republican. Here's a comprehensive list.
Page 1 of 31: https://www.dailykos.com/stori... [dailykos.com]
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Re: parasites (Score:2)
It was on topic for the off-topic comment, though.
Fake News (Score:2)
Florida governor Ron DeSantis declared this story is more fake news from the Democrats and Liberal Media.
"I am not a snail, nor do I have brain worms."
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deeply concerned (Score:2)
But What About The Rats? (Score:2)
It's okay to play with rats?
https://health.hawaii.gov/docd... [hawaii.gov]
Maybe not.
Have the snails infect the pythons (Score:2)
Or have the pythons eat the snails. Maybe that will get rid of at least one invasive pest.
OTOH, maybe we'll have extra large and fit pythons (from all the yummy escargot), or zombie pythons being controlled by evil snail masterminds.
God's punishment? (Score:1)
Service Guarantees Citizenship (Score:1)