Tiny exotic snail is colonizing Earth

[Still Waters]

The New Zealand mudsnail is tiny, about the size of a pencil point, but it is colonizing the planet. The snail has spread far from its home, throughout rivers, lakes and streams in Europe, Australia, Asia and America. In the United States, where it has no natural predators or parasites, it outcompetes native snails and insects for food and is considered an invasive species.

What makes this mudsnail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, such a good invader? The answer lies partly in the species' ability to reproduce quickly and amass in high densities. (Females can produce offspring -- up to 230 per year -- without males.) Now, research has found the New Zealand mudsnail can also survive without water for up to two days, meaning it could latch on to birds, fishing tools or land animals to hitch a ride to a new home.

http://www.cbsnews.c...sMainColumnArea

[Hasina]

All animals were invasive at one point or another. We're an invasive species all over this world, except Africa. Still, totally awesome that such little dudes get around.

[Space Commander Travis]

Colonising Earth? You mean it comes from somewhere beyond this Planet? Well, and to think that the first evidence of extraterrestrail life we've found is a Snail. It just goes to show, see.

[Simbi Laveau]

I would buy plants for my fish tank ...weeks later,I would find like 2-3 tiny snails on the glass inside the tank.

Wtf,and emaculate snail ?

No.probably a wee one in the plant,and now reproducing.

My bettas would eat them,snail and all,but if theydidnt ,the snails would have taken over the tank .

That happened to me no less than a dozen times with plants with a snail attached . They are cute,but insidious .

[Ashotep]

Survival of the fittest and its a frail little snail.

[ThickasaBrick]

Interesting. If they are being transported due to natural means I would say that it is just natures plan. If they are being transported by mans intervention, tropical plants for fish tanks (thanks Simbi for that idea), then it is troublesome. At least they weren't introduced as a means to kill off another species, Cane Toads in Australia for example.

[Arbitran]

Invasive species like this one are always both fascinating and alarming. On the one hand, to see a species be so well-adapted that it can successfully spread across the globe is rare and intriguing; but on the other hand, the destruction of ecosystems and fragile ecologies, such as the mudsnail threatens most, is a decidedly perturbing possibility.

[beibeiqi]

Yeah but I'm pretty sure humans vs. snail they would be wiped out in a second if they were even threatening. I haven't even "seen" them so if they are around where I live they aren't even visible or a bother to me. So I really could care less. Obviously if they were destroying vital plants and livestock it'd be a different story. I highly doubt even if these thing multiply very fast they will take over anything.