Like a large bowl of all-you-can-eat salad, plants are being devoured by giant snails that can grow up to as big as a tennis shoe.

The giant snails pose a threat to the health of both humans and animals.

Florida is facing a great deal of agricultural issues because of the invasive, slimy giant African snails that have been raiding agronomical territory since they were discovered in Miami about four years ago, experts claim.

The snails have such a huge appetite for plants that they are known to consume about 500 different plant species. Apart from their unstoppable appetite for plants, they also feed on house stucco and rat feces.

Mark Fagan, spokesman for Florida's agriculture department, said the state has already spent $10.8 million since 2011 to get rid of the potentially infectious plant pests. This is 10 times more than what was spent by officials in 1960 to eradicate the African giant snails in Florida throughout an entire decade.

The snails don't seem to go away, and officials are concerned that the snails' consumption of rat feces could lead to diseases, such as meningitis. Officials have tried a number of ways to wipe out the species. Organic pesticides were the first option, but they didn't work. They then tried molluscicide containing metaldehyde and found that the chemical pellets kill the pests at a rate of about 95 to 100 percent.

The world's largest gastropods have, however, found a way to avoid the pellets by climbing up trees. According to Mary Yong Cong, a scientist at the Florida Department of Agriculture who observes giant African snails, the species is very curious. It hasn't been easy to get them out of sight.

The giant African snails are also hermaphrodites, making it easy for a snail to lay about 1,200 eggs every year.

Agriculture experts emphasize how much cash and chemicals it takes to exterminate giant African snails, but the pests just won't go away.

Photo: Gail Hampshire | Flickr