BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Ravenous giant snails that emerge from the ground by night are thriving on the tropical island of Barbados, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate them.
A nocturnal survey last weekend found hundreds of thousands of African snails — which are often about the size of a human hand — swarming the central parish of St. George, the country's agricultural heartland, where farmers complained of damage to sugar cane, bananas, papayas and other crops.