For the first time, Beijing Customs intercepted live lidded large snails mailed overseas

Customs officers of the Beijing Post Office under The Beijing Customs intercepted a large snail with a live cover. Photo by Bi Wei

Beijing, 1 Jul (China News Network) -- Beijing Customs reported on 1 July that recently, when the Beijing Post Office Customs, which belongs to the customs, conducted X-ray machine inspections of incoming mail from key countries, it found that the machine-tested images of a certain mail were suspected of shellfish or mollusks, and at the same time, the name of the product was not declared as required. After unpacking, a total of 29 live snails were intercepted. After identification, the batch of living organisms is a large snail with a cap, and it is also the first time that Beijing Customs has intercepted a live cover large snail.

The covered large snail, also known as the grape snail, belongs to the large snail family, the shell is thick and solid, oval or spherical, and is an important phytosanitary pest listed in the "List of Quarantine Pests of Imported Plants of the People's Republic of China".

Such snails can harm more than 100 kinds of herbs, woody, and vines, causing serious harm to vegetables, flowers, sweet potatoes, peanuts, etc., and even eating up plant branches and leaves. In particular, it is extremely harmful to the soybean seedling stage, which causes leaf and stem damage, late emergence of zombie seedlings, and a decline in the seedling formation rate; heavy soybean seedlings are all eaten, resulting in no seedlings. At the same time, its reproduction rate is very fast, and once introduced, it can spread rapidly through various channels.

According to the "List of Animals and Plants and Their Products Prohibited from Being Carried or Mailed into The People's Republic of China", it is strictly forbidden to carry or mail into the country such activities as large snails.

According to the person in charge of Beijing Customs, once such harmful organisms are introduced into China's territory, they will pose a serious threat to China's ecosystem and the safety of agricultural and forestry production.

Beijing Customs reminds the general public not to introduce, release or discard alien species without authorization, and to avoid violating laws and regulations such as the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China, resulting in legal responsibility. (End)

Source: China News Network