African snails attack 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.