giant land snails

[Schlyne]

I've tried to find out what North America's largest native land snail is, but to no avail. All I can find are pages mentioning various species as "AMONG the largest known"...

I found a sheet on the largest freshwater snail native to north America if that helps at all...
http://nis.gsmfc.org/nis_factsheet.php?toc_id=155

 

[Scythemantis]

I don't know if that's the species we have in Southern California, but I've seen the gross little turds on my porch. They LOVE cat food, and I've seen 'em up to 4" in length... and FAT! Shivers.

Aww, slugs are cute...

Banana slugs are usually yellow, but there's a lot of color variations and an infinite variety of black markings.

 

[james]

B. slug

I was camping last week and heard some noise on the ground at night. I flashed my light over to see a racer snake eating a bannana slug. That slug was trying to grip everything, but in the end the snake won. Wish I had a beter camera because the pictures I took kind of sucked.
James

 

[MizM]

Aww, slugs are cute...

Banana slugs are usually yellow, but there's a lot of color variations and an infinite variety of black markings.

Oh, I'm so sorry that I can't share your view of them. I don't know why, but they remind me of leeches.

I was camping last week and heard some noise on the ground at night. I flashed my light over to see a racer snake eating a bannana slug. That slug was trying to grip everything, but in the end the snake won. Wish I had a beter camera because the pictures I took kind of sucked.
James

Now THAT would be interesting to see! I've never heard of a snake anything but vertebrates, but hey, they sure wouldn't have a problem catching them, huh? I have a 5' red racer, think I'll try her on a slug and see if she likes it. I've aways believed in a varied diet.

 

[cacoseraph]

Ah well, I like snails but I guess I don't know a thing about them compared to insects. I thought the infestation in florida had originally started from a single snail that had never been housed with another.

i'm pretty sure i read that three were originally released and three years later something like 60,000 were destroyed