Sharjah24 – AFP:A "plague" of giant African snails, a voracious mollusc dangerous to humans, has been detected in western Venezuela, causing alarm amid a prolonged period of rain that facilitates their reproduction.

Jose Sandoval, environmentalist said, "Every 15 days, a snail can lay between 400 and 1600 (eggs, ed). Let's assume that each individual lays 600 eggs every 15 days. We will have rain until March, so these same conditions, if possible, other conditions can happen too. So the reproduction will be very exponential and that will make it impossible to manage."

He added, "We are in Maracaibo, where we have a deficit of more than 5 million trees in order to be able to start reducing the temperature and this snail is coming to wipe out the little vegetation and the food supply. We have to worry about it and face it."