Creative cook reveals interesting strategy for dealing with invasive creatures: 'They're everywhere'

The giant African snail is an invasive species in Cuba that, over the last five years, has completely taken over. 

One local has shared a strategy to address the invasive issue, using a recipe.

The giant African snail, which can grow to 8 inches in length, can transmit dangerous parasites that can cause serious or fatal illnesses.

According to the Havana Times, a local man referred to by the outlet as Ishmael noted that they appeared before the coronavirus pandemic, but locals quickly forgot as the disease took over — and so did the snails.

These snails can eat any type of vegetation, reproduce rapidly, and transmit diseases like meningitis.

Ishmael began experimenting with cooking the invasive species as humanely as possible, boiling them for 30 minutes and frying them in oil to kill pathogens. 

The larger the better; he leaves them in a container for a few days before cooking and serving them as stews or with rice, beans, and sauce.

While they aren't quite the new steak in Cuba, which is uncommon since cows can't be slaughtered without government permission, the mollusks are packed with protein, as their bodies consist mostly of muscle. 

"It tastes more like chicken gizzards, with a faint hint of something like squid," Ishmael said. "There's one [recipe] I like the best — sautéed with star anise, boiled lemon rinds, garlic, onions, and a lot of hot sauce. I call it 'Death to the Invader.'"

Removing the snails limits their ability to threaten human health by transmitting parasites or diseases through contact with humans.

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Invasive species like these harm local ecosystems by outcompeting and eliminating native species, reducing biodiversity, and altering habitats and natural environmental defenses, like nutrient cycling and fire prevention. In the presence of warming global climates, they exacerbate ecosystem vulnerability even further.

Locals haven't been too pleased with the proliferation of these prehistoric mollusks.

"Over the course of the lockdown here, those snails reproduced more," said Ishmael. "Now they're everywhere."

"I never heard of them before, but now they're everywhere," Yusmila Marín, a 29-year-old nurse who lives in a neighborhood crawling with the snails, told Phys.org.

"It's a health problem, an economic problem, and an ecological problem," said Isbel Díaz, a biologist who runs an environmental group in Havana, per the same publication. "It's a real challenge. No country has been able to control this plague, and Cuba won't be able to in the short or mid-term."

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