Giant African Snails Prompt Quarantine in Fla.

An infestation of giant African land snails has forced a southern Florida community to lock down.

According to the Daily Mail, the snails, which can puncture tires and infect people with meningitis, have descended upon a 3.5-mile section of Miramar in Broward County, Florida.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced Tuesday that “under the quarantine, it is unlawful to move a giant African land snail or a regulated article, including, but not limited to, plants, plant parts, plants in soil, soil, yard waste, debris, compost or building materials, within, through or from the defined quarantine area without a compliance agreement.”

The mollusks produce up to 1,200 eggs per year and can consume over 500 types of vegetation.

This is not the first time the invasive species have come in contact with the Sunshine State.

According to the New York Post, the snails first arrived in Florida in the 1960s when a boy from Miami smuggled three of them in from Hawaii and released them into his grandmother’s garden.

It took over a decade and more than $1 million to eradicate them. Despite these efforts, a recent sighting of over 1,000 snails was reported last year in a community north of Tampa.