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Giant Snails in Florida (Credit: Grzegorz Polak)

No, it’s not an old sci-fi movie: Florida officials are actually warning residents to be on the lookout for large snails that could be threatening to humans and cause ample harm to the local ecosystem… snails that entered the U.S. because of a conspiracy involving dangerous African religious rituals.

The Miami Herald reported that earlier this week two sisters told a fruit-fly inspector about spotting unusually large snails around their property. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer services freaked, and sent out a team to comb the area, even going house-to-house, to find the snails. The report indicated that the team found roughly 1,000 of the snails in a one-square mile radius. The snails were given a “humane” execution: put in a freezer.

Why the fuss? The snails – from Africa – can grow up to 10 inches long and are known for their rabid breeding rate. They also eat more than 500 species of plants and even carry a form on non-fatal meningitis that can be passed onto humans. They’re considered so destructive that it is illegal it bring them into the U.S. A current investigation by federal officials is seeking to determine if a Florida resident smuggled them in (the man practices an African religion in which the snails’ juices are considered a sacrament). The Miami Herald reported that the man, Charles Stewart, may have been aided in the smuggling by an “African priestess” who smuggled the snails onto a Miami-bound flight by hiding them under her dress.

The Miami Herald reported that the snails have previously been residents of the Sunshine State, which is exactly why everyone familiar with them are alarmed: in 1966 a boy brought back three of the snails to Miami from Hawaii. His grandmother eventually released them into the garden. Three became 18,000, and the snails’ eradication cost the state $1 million in 1966 dollars.

“Each snail can live as long as nine years and contains both female and male reproductive organs,” the Florida Department of Agriculture stated. “After a single mating session, each snail can produce 100 to 400 eggs. In a typical year, every mated adult lays about 1,200 eggs.”